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Doodle World (Evercade): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/05/2022 Written by deKay

A short, simple, Super Mario Bros style platformer which is neither difficult nor exciting. It just… is. You jump on heads and collect things and reach the end of the level, and it has “doodled” graphics, which would be nice but on the Evercade’s little screen they’re a bit small and you can’t tell what most things actually are.

It’s fine?

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, evercade

Sparkle Unleashed (PS5): COMPLETED!

Posted on 18/04/2022 Written by deKay

A while back I played that Zuma clone Sparkle 2, and it was pretty good. Well, I recently got a free trial of PSNow to preview what the upcoming PS+ changes might be like, and the original Sparkle was on there and so I gave it a go.

The only real difference between this and Sparkle 2 is that in that game you have the launcher in a fixed point but can rotate 360 degrees and shoot balls that way – like in Zuma. In this, you have a launcher that you move horizontally across the bottom of the screen – like in Luxor.

It’s a polished enough game, and I enjoyed it, but it isn’t exactly high art or anything.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, ps5, psn, sparkle

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS5): COMPLETED!

Posted on 08/04/2022 Written by deKay

It’s been a long time since a Lego game came out. This one is (yet another) Star Wars themed one, which re-treads a lot of ground from previous Lego Star Wars games due to the fact they’re based on the same films. They are, however, all new levels, and the most recent two films have never been developed into a Lego game either, so that’s OK. It’s also a “new engine”, “rewritten from the ground up” or something, so you can say goodbye to all the bugs that recurred in every old Lego game!

Except of course, they still exist. Aside from the random crashes and frozen loading screens (yes, loading screens on a PS5), many of the popular past bugs return here. There’s the “you need to speak to someone but they won’t let you” bug! The “go here to collect an item but it’s not there when you get there, just a marker and an empty space” bug! The “collect ten things only you do but one of them doesn’t register so you can’t get them all” bug! Those, and ALL NEW bugs! Like the “when player two presses a certain button, player one brings up the change character option” bug! And the “if one player starts a side mission while the other player is doing certain things, that second player can’t use any of the buttons on the controller any more” bug!

Even after a number of patches, these bugs remain. In fact, I’m sure the game crashes more frequently now than it did the day before launch when we started playing it.

Thankfully, it’s worth the hassle. Because it’s amazing.

It’s funny, it’s huge, it’s got all your favourite characters from Star Wars like Helmet Man and Red Face Hornhead and Baby Shrek and Blue Lady. It has puzzles and shooting galleries and space battles and lasers. It has snow and sand and water planets. It has Blade Runnery worlds and creatures to ride. It has all the Star Wars stories about the good guy going bad and the bad guy going good and the good guy hiding away and the other bad guy turning good just in time to save the galaxy.

You’d be right in thinking I care not for Star Wars as a theme. Which doesn’t matter when it’s enjoyable to just smash everything and laugh at the funnies.

The only real difference to the older games is that the camera angle is now an over-the-shoulder one, more like modern third-person action games. What you actually do is mostly unchanged – collect things, smash things, operate things, get All the Bricks (which are now blue and see-through instead of gold, and there are almost 1200 of them instead of a few hundred) – and I actually didn’t realise we’d been playing from a different angle until we were a few hours in.

I say we because like most other Lego games, I can’t play them on my own. My daughter, who literally knows nothing about Star Wars that didn’t come from a game, insisted she played too so it has been a co-op affair for the entire time. It certainly helps when getting things done more quickly, but one side effect of a split screen combined with the new camera does mean that some events – like those where you have to fly through spheres – are almost impossible as you can’t see them due to the limited viewport.

The actual story, all nine films combined, is actually pretty short (for a Lego title). Each one only has a couple of levels with some short filler sections between, and we’d completed that in about 8 hours. However, the traditional brick mop-up is immense. Hundreds of events, tasks and missions. Wookies and Porgs and Gonks to find all over the galaxy. Fetch quests, capital ship battles, and asteroids to destroy. Finding every hidden character. It may have been only 8 hours to reach the credits, but we’ve spent over 50 hours on it in total so far and are only 36% complete!

So, it has faults, like all Lego games, but is excellent, like all Lego games.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, lego, ps5, star wars

Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 25/03/2022 Written by deKay

It’s different, isn’t it? The last few main Pokémon games have all claimed to be “new” in terms of how they play, with Let’s Go! doing away with proper battles with wild Pokémon, Sun and Moon being properly in 3D and Sword and Shield having the Wild Areas. Arceus is like an extrapolation of those Wild Areas, with several large regions you can freely travel around, seeing Pokémon in the wild doing what they do, and catching them by sneaking up and chucking balls at them.

This mechanic flips the original Pokémon premise on its head. Back then, you’d venture into the long grass and be pounced on by hidden ‘mons, but here it’s you furtively stalking them from the grassy hiding places ready to attack (or catch) when they’re close or distracted. It’s this feature which is the bulk of the gameplay, with different species reacting differently to you. Some, like Starly, will run as soon as you’re spotted. Some, like Aipom, will run up to you and jump around your legs harmlessly. Others will attack on sight, and I mean attack you, not your Pokémon: Another difference to the established norm. You can run away, or chuck out one of your party to fight back, but initially it’s you who can take damage and if you’re hurt too much it’s you that faints, losing some of your gathered items in the process.

They obviously realised there’s no point hiding which attacks are effective and not as everyone would just look them up. So they just tell you now.

Yes, gathered items. Not just potions and balls you have, like in previous games, but crafting materials because all games are crafting games these days. Stuff you pick up, smash open, or get from caught or defeated creatures can be used to make Pokéballs, buffs, food, and so on and although you can buy some of these things, you really don’t have the money to spend on that – at least early on, anyway.

So you wander these large open areas, trapping Pokémon and cock fighting whilst collecting Everything You Can and filling your satchel (which happens a lot, so it’s good you can pay a guy to give you more storage space) with junk and crafting balls and lures and progressing the story. But what is the story?

Well, it’s different to the previous games too. Sure, the details varied from game to game but ultimately every Pokémon title has two main stories. The personal one, where you’ve got to Be the Very Best and beat all the gym leaders and then the Elite Four and become King of All The Pokémon Trainers, and the other one where you have Team Rocket or Team Galactic or Team Skull or whoever doing Evil Deeds and you have to stop them, usually by tracking down some uber-powerful ‘mon and defeating the Team Leader. Then there’s usually some post game content, which basically just gives you the chance to complete your Pokédex. But not here! Well, not quite.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is set in the past. A few hundred years in the past, in fact, in what would eventually be called the Sinnoh Region (the setting for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) for reasons that become clear in the game, but is here still referred to as the Hisui Region. You appear in this world, plucked from parts (and times) unknown by Arceus at the start of the game and dropped out of the sky onto a beach just outside Jubilife Village – the seed of Jubilife City from Diamond/Pearl of course. The village is where a group of explorers, scientists and surveyors calling themselves Galaxy Team (waitaminite…) have set themselves up as an outpost in the region, wedging in between the previously-warring-but-now-more-tolerant two factions of Diamond Clan and Pearl Clan. See, it’s clever, yes?

How do you calm a frenzied Pokémon? Balms to the face.

Both clans worship the great Creator, whom they call Sinnoh, but one clan thinks it’s basically the God of Time and the other thinks it’s the God of Space. Without spoilering, they’re both right and wrong. You make friends with both Galaxy Team members and these clans throughout your adventure, which is part you trying to figure out where you came from, and trying to stop the seemingly impending doom caused by the lightning in the sky over Mount Sinnoh which you may actually be the cause of. Mostly, this involves Pokémon battles, catching Pokémon, and boss fights against massive raging Pokémon where you chuck parcels of food at their face until they calm down because of course you do. Oh, and Arceus, aside from sometimes making your “phone” device bleep occasionally, is never to be seen again. Well, not until after the main story is complete perhaps – that’s how far I’ve got.

There’s no gyms. There aren’t really even many trainers. Most people are still scared of Pokémon (and, given they’re all shown as Actual Size, who wouldn’t be) and Pokéballs are still a new invention so the many varieties like Master Balls and Net Balls and so on don’t exist yet. You can ride a handful of beasts that you obtain through the story which allow you to swim, run, jump and fly and so reach new areas. It all feels very fresh and new and yet – and yet – it’s still somehow Pokémon and feels like a Pokémon game even though it’s very different. It’s polished, although some areas are a little lacking graphically, and a bit repetitive with the Pokédex research tasks that require multiple battles or captures with each type of Pokémon and resource gathering, but then if you’re concerned about repetition you wouldn’t be playing Pokémon.

As I said, I’ve completed the story insofar as I’ve done all the missions up to the credits, but now there’s the small task of catching them all. And a million side quests and some additional story. And maybe, actually, Arceus itself.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a fantastic new entry in the series, albeit a spinoff. It’s new and old at the same time, and if the recently announced main series games Scarlet and Violet can use some of the same features then I’d love to see that too. If not, a sequel to this set in another region’s past would absolutely do me.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, pokemon, switch

Super Fantasy Zone (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 23/03/2022 Written by deKay

This was hard. I’ve played it before but I don’t remember it being this difficult. In fact, last time I said this:

So yes, it’s probably the easiest of all the Fantasy Zone games 

Which is proof I’m an actual liar because no, no it is not. It’s bloody hard and even with saving each level I barely made it through. That said, the bosses were pretty easy – it’s the levels themselves which are virtually impossible to move five pixels without dying. Again. And again.

It was still fun though, despite all that. You can’t hate the blue skies and twinkly happy musics even if you are struggling to progress.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, fantasy zone, Mega Drive, retro, switch

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