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Things I’ve Been Playing Recently

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I’m aware I’ve not posted in a while, so just a brief catchup. Stardew Valley (Switch) Just reaching the end of Winter, Year 3, and although I’m ready to wed the lovely but crazy Emily, there’s been no rain for the entire season so I can’t see the guy on the beach and buy the necessary amulet. I’ve been making friends with everyone while I wait instead. I’ve also managed to complete Qi’s increasingly more bizarre requests and now have access to the casino, as I really like casino games in general and I even play in the web online in the olympic kingsway casinos most of the times. I’ve not won much though. I think I’m nearly done with the game. Once I’m married I’ll consider retiring, unless it opens up more gameplay stuff. I’m almost 110 hours in and there are other games that need playing. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) 800-odd moons now. I’ve completed The Darker Side (but not The Dark Side), and collecting the remaining moons is tedious beyond belief. It’s the least fun Mario game in ages now. But I feel I must get them all, so… Million Onion Hotel (iOS) I talked about this for a bit on the ugvm Podcast (which you really should listen to). It’s a 5×5 grid, screen tapping puzzle game that I paid real actual money for and it’s madness. And too hard. I reached the third boss but that’s as far as I’ve managed so far. Picross S (Switch) Not very much though. Just the odd puzzle every now and then. That’s not knocking it – it’s how I want to play it! The post Things I’ve Been Playing Recently appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Bye-Bye Box Boy! (3DS): COMPLETED!

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You know, the positive thing about having my Switch stolen by my daughter is it means I get to play other games on other systems now. Like this, which I bought ages ago when it was on offer then promptly forgot to do anything with it.

Like the first two Box Boy! games, both of which I really enjoyed, Bye-Bye Box Boy! is a puzzle game where you create a chain of boxes and use them to traverse a level, avoid dangers, press switches, and so on. For the most part, it’s the same as the other games, but some worlds here have new gimmicks, like teleportation boxes, baby boxes you have to help navigate to the goal, bomb boxes, and remote control boxes.

It’s also a lot easier than I was expecting. I managed every single level, without struggling, collecting every crown on my first try. Of course, now I’ve completed it there are more – no doubt harder – levels that have opened up, but I don’t remember the other games being as simple as this. Maybe I’m just wise to the tricks now.

Still excellent though.

The post Bye-Bye Box Boy! (3DS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Yellow (iOS): COMPLETED!

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That podcast that I do, you know, the ugvm one? Well, Luffer was on it this week and he told us all about a mobile game called Yellow. It piqued my interest, despite being a mobile game, so today I looked it up and discovered it’s free. Free! Something I read said it was ad-supported, but I didn’t see any, so not sure how that works. Free!

It also does the other thing that negates the issues I have playing telephone games, buy having sensible, touch-screen usable controls. No virtual sticks and buttons here. Ticks all round.

Click to view slideshow.

The game itself is a set of 50 puzzles where you have to turn the whole screen yellow. The thing is, you’re not told how to do this, and the puzzles are all different (with only a few sharing similar ideas). You have to not only work out what you’re supposed to do, but how to do it.

Some involve pressing shapes in order, others need you to move things around. There’s a Rubik’s Clock type one, a couple involving wordplay, and one with RGB sliders – only they’re not exactly RGB.

None of them are especially taxing, and the whole game is only around an hour long, but it was fun, and clever, and that’s more than enough a free game needs to be.

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Universal Paperclips (Web): COMPLETED!

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It’s one of those clicker games, only this one plays out in several phases. First, there’s the Grow Your Paperclip Making Empire, then there’s Take Over The Earth With Paperclips, and finally, The Universe Needs Paperclips. They’re my names, by the way.

Across these three phases, instead of just one “currency”, there are a number that build up different things or make your production more effective. It adds a bit more to the proceedings than your usual clicker game, and in fact – relatively at least – there’s not actually that much clicking. It’s happier for the most part just idling while you click every so often to spend what you’ve earned.

I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but it’s worth a play through at least. Which you can do so here, for free.

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R-Type Dimensions (PS3): COMPLETED!

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Well that came out of nowhere and has now gone whence it came very soon afterwards.

R-Type Dimensions is one of this month’s PS+ titles, and since my daughter stole the Switch this evening I thought I’d have a look. And I looked, and played, and completed it.

It’s R-Type, as in, the original arcade game. Only you can press R1 and swap between original graphics and music, and new graphics (a new art type, if you will, oh ho ho ho) and music – much like how you can with the Monkey Island remaster and Wonderboy: The Dragon’s Trap. As it’s just the original game, it’s short and it’s impossible.

R-Type was always too hard for me to complete, but it’s one of a relatively small number of games in the genre that I enjoy. Thankfully, you get infinite lives here, and I needed over a hundred of them to complete the eight levels. It was fun. Some of the baddies are impossible to hit. And that’s that.

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