ugvm

the site of uk.games.video.misc

  • E-mail
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • Platforms
    • Xbox 360
    • Playstation 3
    • wii u
    • 3ds
    • psp
    • iOS
    • PC
    • Mac
    • Wii
    • xbox
    • SNES
    • Mega Drive
  • Gamercodes
    • Xbox Live
    • Wii U NNIDs
    • Wii
    • PSN
    • 3DS
    • Steam
    • Apple Game Center
    • Battle.net
    • Elite Dangerous
  • Gallery
  • Back Issues
  • Other Groups
  • About Us
    • A brief history of ugv*
    • Posting Traditions
    • Join in
    • ugvm Charter

Unpacking (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 11/06/2022 Written by deKay

What I was expecting from this game: a sort of Tetris puzzle game where you have to fit items into a room. What I was not expecting: a putting-things-away simulator with an unwritten, non-verbal story about the life of a woman.

Told over a number of years across various different houses, you unpack your belongings as you move in. Over time, you acquire (and lose) new hobbies, tastes and relationships, but this is only explained by the objects in the houses.

There’s a small amount of “make every fit”, and some stuff will only go in certain places, but it isn’t tricky and there’s no penalty or stress. It’s just a nice little time waster with a surprise story.

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

Unpacking (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 11/06/2022 Written by deKay

What I was expecting from this game: a sort of Tetris puzzle game where you have to fit items into a room. What I was not expecting: a putting-things-away simulator with an unwritten, non-verbal story about the life of a woman.

Told over a number of years across various different houses, you unpack your belongings as you move in. Over time, you acquire (and lose) new hobbies, tastes and relationships, but this is only explained by the objects in the houses.

There’s a small amount of “make every fit”, and some stuff will only go in certain places, but it isn’t tricky and there’s no penalty or stress. It’s just a nice little time waster with a surprise story.

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

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 05/06/2022 Written by deKay

What a lovely blue skies game this was. It wasn’t the open-world, post apocalyptic Kirby the trailers and pre-release media made out though, as it sticks to the same level structure as most of the classic Kirby titles, but it looks amazing and is a lot of fun.

And is so, so easy! I completed the entire game, including the post-ending extra hard content, without dying at all. Or even coming close to dying. Or, a handful of bosses aside, even paying attention to my energy bar. But then, Kirby games have never been anything even approaching difficult so that’s not really the point.

The point, is that they’re so joyful and quirky and have unusual (to other games) mechanics. Here, you have the standard “suck up enemies to steal their powers” of previous games, but they’ve added Mouthful Mode where you try to suck up large objects like vending machines and cars but they get a bit stuck, although do provide you with some extra temporary skills. The car can smash through things, the big fan can be used to propel a boat, the cone can break through cracked floors, etc.

Your normal powers can be upgraded too. There are short challenge levels that task you with completing them in a certain time, or with a certain power, and these give you special stars which you can spend on the upgrades. It makes the powers deal more damage and so on, but also changes how they look. You don’t actually need any of these upgrades, but they’re nice to have.

In short (and the game is pretty short) it’s a bright and happy Nintendo platformer with charm and cute things and – most importantly – it’s really fun.

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

Picross S Mega Drive & Master System Edition (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 01/06/2022 Written by deKay

Yes, it’s another of Jupiter’s excellent but nearly identical Picross games! Only this one is slightly different as each puzzle is a pixel graphic straight from a Sega Mega Drive or Master System game! But you guessed that from the title.

Not that it really matters because I literally don’t care what the pictures actually are, but it was a bit disappointing that so many of them were just faces of characters from games. Nowhere near as many items, logos, weapons, scenery parts, etc. as I’d hoped for. Also, the music is so, so irritating. The Alex Kidd music, on a loop, for over half an hour? No thanks. And why Passing Breeze from Out Run when Magical Sound Shower exists? Madness.

Can you tell that it’s Knuckles yet?

Thankfully, you can put “soothing arcade sounds” on instead. So I did that.

Oh, and completion time? About 30 hours.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, Master System, Mega Drive, picross, switch

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

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 42
  • Next Page »

Latest Podcast Listenbox

Tags

3ds 360 ACNL animal crossing assassin's creed Batman Clash Royale completed Destiny Diary evercade Game Diary games iOS lego Lost Cities Mac mario Mass Effect Master System Mega Drive minecraft nes PC picross Playstation 3 Playstation 4 Playstation 5 pokemon Post ps+ ps3 PS4 ps5 psn PS Vita retro sonic the hedgehog streetpass switch Vita Wii wii u Xbox 360 zelda

Contributors

  • Diary – deKay's Lofi Gaming
  • Game Diary – The Temple of Bague
  • gospvg
  • Lufferov’s Gaming Diary
  • Tim's Gaming Diary

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

RSS Feed RSS – Posts

Copyright © 2022 · Outreach Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in