Dark Souls 3

From Software - 2016 - PC/PS4/XboxOne

When I finished Dark Souls II earlier this year, I criticized it for having lackluster level design and a dull story especially when compared to the amazing precedent that was set with the original Dark Souls. Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was busy making Bloodborne while Dark Souls 2 was in development and I think his presence was missed. DS2 wasn't terrible, but it didn't quite have the magic of the first game. Miyazaki's magic, while difficult to describe, was something I immediately felt when I started Dark Souls 3. I think it's most noticeable in the level and enemy design. From Software in general has an unrivaled expertise in 3D level design. If you ever want to see video game level design's version of the Mona Lisa, you need to check out some of From Software's offerings from DS1 and DS3

Not only are the environments created in a very mechanically and structurally pleasing way, but the visuals are top notch here as well. As much as DS3's world in concerned with killing you, it's also just as concerned with having you admire its beauty. DS3 has some of the most breathtaking mountains, valleys, lakes and castles I've ever seen in a video game. It can be hard to admire the scenery with the constant threat of death right in front of you, but if you have a chance to stop and take it in, Dark Souls 3 is quite a sight to behold. It's also quite proficient at one of my favorite things to see done well: environmental storytelling. Want to get an idea of how old DS3's Firelink Shrine is? Head below the shrine and see the massive crypt filled with the remains of past fire keepers. Stuff like that really helps with player immersion and bringing the game world to life

The game mechanics are mostly what you'd come to expect if you've played any of From Software's similar offerings. It does seem like the team made a decision to push the combat mechanics more in the direction of DS1 than DS2. Gone is DS2's health bar reduction on every death. Enemies now respawn indefinitely like DS1. Also "humanity", which is now called "ember" is a binary state, again just like DS1. The primary new mix up to the gameplay formula comes in the form of weapon arts. Weapon arts are unique skills that are tied to your left hand item and can range from temporary buffs to entirely new unique moves. Often times your left hand item will be a shield which may have a shield bash or shield parry as like the previous Dark Souls games, or your shield may even default to your right hand weapon's weapon art skill as is the case when you have nothing at all equipped in the left hand slot. Most weapon arts consume your magic meter as well which also gives non magic classes incentive to put points into leveling up their magic bar. I found weapon arts to be a welcome addition to the Souls formula that adds interesting and unique skills and abilities and makes experimenting around with different equipment load outs even more fun and interesting

The strange and alluring mystique of Dark Souls' lore is back in full force. As I wandered through the Dark Souls 3's various mysterious locations, I found myself reading the item descriptions of various weapons and armor I picked up for additional lore. I was even drawn to watching several YouTube videos explaining the backstories of several bosses and NPC and theorizing on their connections. There are also several tie ins and reoccurring characters from the first Dark Souls so veterans of the series are in for a few surprising pay-offs especially for those who are deeply invested in the lore.

Summary
If this truly is the last Souls game we get, it is certainly a worthy send off for the series. Level design, audiovisuals, gameplay and lore are all top notch here and in some cases arguably the best we've seen of the Dark Souls series. This is one of my favorite games of the year so far and a must play for fans of these games who are up for one more challenge.

Dark Souls II

FromSoftware - 2014 - PS3\PS4\X360\XboxOne\PC

I started playing Dark Souls 2 immediately after completing the first Dark Souls game as I couldn't get enough of the first game. It's tough but fair action RPG combat system had taught me to pay attention to enemy attack patterns, be wary of traps and to frequently praise the sun. I needed more. On the surface, Dark Souls 2 appears to be a very safe "more of the same" sequel to the first game. However, there are some notable departures from the original formula once you dig in to the game.

Firstly humanity and hollowing are no longer a boolean "yes" or "no", you're either human or you're partially hollow. The more you die, the more hollow you become and the more your maximum health decreases. This can be reversed by using a consumable "human effigy", which are thankfully quite plentiful in this game. But if you're human or close to being human, the more susceptible to invasions you are. But you can still only summon a friendly companion to battle if you're 100% human.

I know Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was busy making Bloodborne during Dark Souls 2's development. I think the lack of his presence is felt when examining some of the details of Dark Souls 2 up close. For example the level design of the first Dark Souls game was something I really loved. All of the levels looped back on each other so that as you progressed, you would unlock natural paths and shortcuts back to earlier levels in the game. Not so much with Dark Souls 2. The level design is much more linear and you'll need to just keep progressing in a certain direction until you can't progress any more, then warp back to another bonfire, which is an ability you have from the get-go in this game. Another really strange design decision is that you can only level up in one particular bonfire by talking to a nearby NPC as opposed to leveling up at any bonfire as was the case in the first game. In practice this becomes rather annoying as you have to warp back and forth to level up and suffer through loading screens each time which seems unnecessary.

Another place where Miyazaki's absence is felt is with the story. Yes, the first Dark Souls game had a sparse and cryptic story as is the case with the second game, but there were memorable characters and bosses and locations. They were made memorable through repeated mentions and given weight by the way they the characters referred to them. Even though the story was sparse and cryptic, it felt plausibly real. Dark Souls 2's story is just simply sparse and cryptic. New locations are discovered and conquered without fanfare or reaction by the game's story. Fighting a boss in Dark Souls 2 is not an epic clash with the legendary creature you've heard so much about. It's just another boss. Even the "greater soul" bosses seem unremarkable from both a story and gameplay perspective.

Speaking of gameplay, the combat is still pretty solid. It's a bit more balanced and polished, and there seems to be more a few more valid builds now. However, I will say that the difficulty curve does seem especially wonky. There are a few pain points in the beginning and middle of the game, but everything else including the end of the game is a relative cakewalk. I've talked with a few friends who have played this game about their experience with the difficulty curve and have had some conflicting reports, so which parts of the game you find challenging may partially depend on your character build and playstyle.

Summary
It may not have the brilliance of its predecessor, but Dark Souls 2 is still a solid game for those people looking for more masochistic fun. Story and level design aren't quite what they were in the first Dark Souls game, but this game is still solid enough to warrant a recommendation. I've now moved on to Bloodborne to satiate my love of these games and have so far been enjoying this same style of game with a fresh setting.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Ateroid Base - 2015 - XboxOne/PC

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is the mouthful of a title given to developer Asteroid Base's inaugural game. I actually got to preview this at PAX Prime earlier this year and it was one of the most popular titles in the indie area and with good reason. Lovers is a cooperative space exploration game where two players must cooperate to man various stations on a spaceship to navigate through space and rescue little space critters. In order to complete a level, a certain number of little space critters has to be rescued for the exit to be unlocked but if you and your partner are feeling like completionists, you can collect all of the critters in each stage to get access to different model ships and unlock other powerups faster. The locations of the critters and the entire world as a whole are totally differently systematically generated on each run, giving every playthrough a fresh feel. Once you find a critter, usually some small challenge has to be completed before you can rescue them. For example, you may have to fight several waves of enemies, escape an explosion or fight a mini boss. 

There are various stations to man on each ship including weapons, shields, engines and a powerful yamato cannon weapon. There are several campaigns that are made up of 4 levels and a final boss fight. Each level offers upgrade crystals that you can install in your systems that will persist throughout the campaign. Deciding which crystals to place in which systems is initially a fun experimental learning process, but I've found once you know what the crystal combinations do, you usually fall into a pattern of upgrading that results in a familiar ship layout each time. But there are also several ship layouts to unlock in the game, each with their own stats and quirky gameplay rules. For instance, there's one unlockable ship that constantly rotates around while you play, making locating and controlling your character within the ship quite a challenge, but as a tradeoff, the ship is also immune to terrain damage. I'm a sucker for these kinds of unlockable gameplay variations and this game reminded me a bit of my favorite FTL from the space exploration and battles right down to the unlockable ships. Obviously the gameplay is nowhere close to the same, but there are similarities to be drawn between the two roguelike space exploration games

There are only two crew members, making coordination and teamwork a key to success in this game. Communication with your partner is necessary and coming up with a good strategy is vital so that you and your teammate aren't running to the same stations to man the same systems. Once you get that strategy established and you and your partner know how to run the ship like seasoned space travelers, it's a really neat feeling. But it's also just as fun to yell and scream at your partner when things are going horribly wrong and your ship is about to explode

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime Video Review

Summary
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime offers the best experiences for couch co-op play. It's conceptually simple to learn and easy to pick up and play. But there's still a decent amount of strategy, skill and depth to be found here as well, and applying these strategies skill and depth of understanding of the game is especially necessary in the later levels where the difficulty gets ratcheted up quite a bit. I really enjoyed this game; it's one of the best couch cooperative experiences I've had. If you and a friend are looking for something to play, you can't go wrong with Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Dark Souls

FromSoftware - 2011 - PS3/PC/X360

I did it! Praise the sun! I've finished Dark Souls! Good Lord this game is mercilessly difficult. And also one of the best designed games I've ever played. If you've heard people tell you how good this game is, it's true. It's also no exaggeration how difficult this game is, so this is definitely not a game for everyone. I think if you're an seasoned gamer who's up for a challenge and you approach this game with patience and an open mind, you'll be able to discover the fun in building your character, experimenting with the game's systems, exploring the masterfully designed levels and discovering this game's hidden lore.

This game simultaneously does the best and worst job teaching mechanics I've seen in a video game recently.The Northern Undead Asylum where you begin the game serves as the game's tutorial. It teaches you how to move your character, to read messages on the floor, and that shiny things and bonfires are good. It teaches you how to defend with a shield by forcing you to walk down a narrow corridor with a guy on the far end shooting arrows at you. The only way you'll make it is learning to use the shield. It then throws a fairly difficult boss at you, teaching you that Dark Souls will be hard and that running away is a valid option and is sometimes the best one. You eventually have to kill the boss to complete the tutorial, but if you manage to scramble across the boss room before he kills you, a better weapon can be found and the game also gives you some hints for dealing more damage. The tutorial also teaches you what is probably Dark Souls' most important lesson which is that you cannot hack and slash your way through this game. You must pay attention to enemy attack animations, learn their tells, and understand when it's safe to attack them. It's an excellent tutorial for the game and teaches you all of Dark Souls' basic mechanics... but it doesn't address or teach its more complex mechanics at all. It's also easy to be overwhelmed by the spreadsheet of statistics presented to you on the player stats page, which isn't explained in detail. Dark Souls is a game that expects its players to learn its more complicated systems by experimentation or trial and error. Or just google everything, which is probably what most people do.

After completing the tutorial level, Dark Souls opens up quite a bit and becomes very non-linear for the rest of the game. You can take any path in any order you want, some paths are easier and intended to be taken first, some paths are harder and intended to be done later in the game, and some paths are completely optional and never required to finish the game. But you don't know which paths are which until you take them. Trial and error is another one of the design themes found throughout Dark Souls. Yes, it's frustrating at times, but the joy of exploring and discovering new paths or new secrets offsets the frustration of accidentally taking a path intended for later in the game and getting your butt kicked.

You can level up your character by spending the souls of the enemies you killed on upgrades while at a bonfire. If you die, you lose all of your accumulated souls, so you're encouraged to spend them often. Mercifully, if you can make it back to where you died, you can recover your lost souls, but dying twice in a row without recovery will see your unspent souls lost forever. It creates a sort of system where even when you're dying over and over again, you feel like you're making progress both through leveling up, and also by learning from deaths, memorizing enemy patterns and remembering level layouts. Progress in Dark Souls can be marked by killing bosses or discovering shortcuts that lead back to previously explored areas in the game, giving the game a bit of a metroidvania feel. You'll find that a lot of the weapons and armor in Dark Souls are not really statistically better or worse, just different. Some weapons may have comparable stats, but differing swing arcs or varying ranges. It's not so much a matter of finding the best weapons and armor in Dark Souls, but finding the ones that best suit your playstyle

There's also an ever-present multiplayer component to Dark Souls. You basically always play the game online, seeing ghostly glimpses of other players and reading the sometimes helpful, sometimes trolling messages left by them. You can also optionally opt-in to a cooperative multiplayer component to get assistance from another player to take down a difficult boss. The thing is, when you opt-in to the cooperative multiplayer, it also makes you susceptible to hostile PvP invasions from other players. It's a really cool mechanical tradeoff and another really smart design decision

The story of Dark Souls is communicated very unconventionally. Often NPCs will reveal very little about themselves or the world around them, so most of the narrative is communicated through environmental storytelling and also reading the item descriptions on new things you pick up. Don't be mistaken, there really is a lot of lore in Dark Souls, it's just hard to find and it's very open ended. The story purposely poses a lot of interesting unanswered questions and leaves it up to the player to fill in the gaps with their own imagination and interpretation of what happened.

Dark Souls Video Review

Summary
Dark Souls is probably the hardest game I've completed. It's also one of the best designed games I've played recently. If you can approach this game with a certain amount of patience and endurance, you'll really enjoy it. The feeling of finally killing that boss you've been stuck on is a feeling of reward that is unmatched in any other game. Even the little rewarding moments of finding a new weapon, or discovering a new shortcut or learning something new about the game's mechanics you didn't know before feels awesome. It's not for everyone, but the people who it IS for will find Dark Souls very enjoyable.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Dennaton Games - 2015 - PC/PS3/PS4/Vita

I was waiting until after I finished this game to review it - which I had intended to be a few weeks or so after its release, but that obviously didn't happen. So I've been playing this game on and off trying to get past the part I'm stuck on and you know what? This game is really freaking hard and I don't think I can finish it. At least not right now. So disclaimer: I'm reviewing a game I didn't complete

I could probably be super lazy with this review and just say "It's more Hotline Miami" and in most ways, that's very true. But I'm going to try to be just a bit more insightful and try to highlight some of the differences between this game and its predecessor. First off, the gameplay. It plays largely very similarly to the first game, but you'll notice some differences in level design. Some of Hotline Miami 2's levels are a lot more wide open, which was something that was not really present in the first game. Because of this, I found it much more important to use the camera to look around to see if an enemy is lurking off screen. This becomes kind of annoying, especially when off-screen enemies start shooting you from unseen locations. Nearly every level in Hotline Miami 2 features a different playable character with slightly different abilities, similar to the mask system in the first game. But the player can't change out and experiment with abilities and playstyles when they want to, like in the first game. Levels in Hotline Miami 2 are also generally much longer than the first game. This makes an already hard game that much harder and that much more frustrating when you're killed near the end of the level and forced to start again. It wasn't that big of a deal in the first game, as it was more about the thrill of memorizing relatively short levels and then executing them perfectly. The longer levels in the second game greatly slow it down and make it feel like more of a chore.

(Mild spoilers in this paragraph) The narrative in the first Hotline Miami game was definitely a little open to interpretation. The first half of Hotline Miami saw the player character, "Jacket" slaughtering buildings full of people because a voice on his telephone told him to. The second half of the game (if you follow Jacket's storyline) saw Jacket killing with a purpose instead, tracking down and killing off the people who killed his girlfriend. Many people viewed the story as a commentary on violence in video games, and discussed how killing for no reason vs. the player character killing with a purpose felt the same/different. I admired how Hotline Miami's story could be viewed through many lenses and how the vagueness of the story left it open for the players' imaginations to fill in the gaps. Hotline Miami 2's story has a similar vagueness, but it's compounded by each level being played by a different character and then each level also being told chronologically out of order. I just couldn't even follow what was supposed to be happening. The story seemed like some crazy blur of violence, neon lights, pounding music and confusion. Maybe that's what the developers were going for?

The soundtrack in Hotline Miami 2 is still very much on point. It's still a collaboration of many different artists, even more than the first game, that have somehow banded together to make a unified sound. Most of the first game's musical authors have returned to contribute fresh tracks, but I loved contributions from new artists as well. A few of my favorites are "Divide" by Magna, "Blizzard" by Light Club, and "The Way Home" by Magic Sword. The entire soundtrack is solid from top to bottom and is worth a listen if you like this sort of electronic/techno music.

Summary
I didn't care for the minor changes in gameplay and story but despite all of my above griping, Hotline Miami 2 is still a solid game. Fans of the first game should still enjoy its sequel, but if you haven't played Hotline Miami before, start with the first one. It's the superior game

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

 Retro Studios (Nintendo) / Monster Games - 2014 - WiiU

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

I grew up with the Donkey Kong Country games and am a huge fan. When Donkey Kong Country Returns came out in 2010, I was super excited to see the franchise revived after nearly a 15 year absence. But I was ultimately pretty dissapointed with that game mostly due to control scheme problems. It was back when every Wii game was obliged to shoehorn in Wii Remote waggling of some sort or another, so DKC:Returns forced you to shake the controller every time you want to roll. It was just awful. A simple design decision made what would have been an otherwise pretty good platformer nearly unplayable for me. I found a downloadable hack online that patched in the ability to map the controller shaking to a button, so I'd recommend Googling for it if you want to go back and play DKC: Returns because that game is fundamentally broken out of the box. The egregious controller shaking was unforgivable, but I noticed another small problem with DKC:Returns. It had a bit of an identity problem. It was a decent platformer with some admittedly pretty good level design, but it didn't really feel like a Donkey Kong Country game. Where were the Kremlings? Where were all the animal buddies other than Rambi? Where was the amazing head rocking music I was used to from previous entries? Sure it featured Donkey Kong characters, but the soul of the game was stripped away. For a game titled "Donkey Kong Country Returns", it didn't really feel like the franchise HAD actually returned.

So now onto Tropical Freeze. The first thing it does right is provide support for other control schemes. There is still Wii Remote waggling, but you don't have to do it if you play with either the WiiU gamepad or pro controller. Hallelujah!! This automatically makes the game much more enjoyable. The game also looks gorgeous in HD. The visuals were always so striking in DKC games, even on the SNES so it was nice to see some TLC paid to the backgrounds and artwork. The next thing you'll notice is the soundtrack. David Wise, the main composer of the SNES trilogy, has returned to the franchise to pump some soul back into it. I'll talk about him later, but what really made this a Donkey Kong Country game for me was a simple animation. Dixie Kong's falling/sliding animation. It's an animation that's rarely ever seen in either Tropical Freeze or the SNES DKC games, but it plays when Dixie is sliding down a surface. She sticks her arms and legs straight up and flails them around in the air. Again, it's a silly animation rarely ever used, but as soon as I saw it, it made me smile. It's the little polish developers can apply that make die-hard fans like myself feel at home in the franchise. No, there's still no Kremlings or animal buddies other than Rambi. But Tropical Freeze is a Donkey Kong Country game.

Dixie Kong is back from DKC 2/3! And Cranky Kong is now a playable character! Each Kong has their own special abilities. Diddy retains his jetpack hover from DKC:Returns and can now use it underwater to swim super quickly. Dixie makes Diddy somewhat obsolete with her hair flutter which carries the player higher/father in the air than Diddy's jetpack. Cranky Kong, my new favorite Kong, can pogo bounce on enemies and over spikes with his cane a la Duck Tales. Choosing which Kong to accompany you on a level is a new interesting decision as certain levels are tailored to certain Kong's abilities. Each level has been designed perfectly for speed running and platform and enemy placement is done just so basting through at full speed is possible if you have enough skill. Another speedrunner-friendly addition is then inclusion of replays. When you finish a level, you can post your replay online for friends/challengers to see. You can also view the replays of the top speed runs for a given level to see how it was actually possible to complete it in 43 seconds or whatever. This was a pretty cool addition. And don't let the cutsey Nintendo mascots fool you. This game is hard. Old-school hard. And if the normal levels aren't hard enough for you, you can find all of the K-O-N-G letters in each world to unlock bonus levels that are obnoxiously hard. I have only been able to finish one of the bonus levels so far. And I'm pretty darn good at this game.

Can we talk about the genius of David Wise for a second? When I heard he was back to work on the Tropical Freeze soundtrack, I was super pumped. Listening to the soundtrack was what actually made me want to play this game. The original tracks are awesome - Windmill Hills, Deep Keep and Fruity Factory. And the remix tracks are awesome too - Current Capers (Remix of DKC Aquatic Ambience), Irate Eight Chase (Remix of DKC2 Lockjaw's Saga) and Twilight Terror (Remix of DKC2 Stickerbrush Symphony). I actually think I like that cover of Stickerbrush Symphony better than the original. And I love the Original. If you like video game music or David Wise's work, I'd encourage you to listen to the whole soundtrack. There's lots of musical variety and it's absolutely phenomenal.

Video Review of DKC: Tropical Freeze

Summary
Tropical Freeze is the true return of the Donkey Kong Country franchise. A game with tight controls (yay!), excellent level design, striking visuals and rocking music are what you'll find here. If you're a fan of challenging platformers, speedrunning or excellent audiovisual presentation, you'll enjoy Tropical Freeze. It's a fun game to play cooperatively as well.

Super Meat Boy

Team Meat - 2010 - PC/X360

As far as indie games go, I know the awareness of Super Meat Boy is pretty high up there. It was featured in the excellent 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, alongside Fez and Braid. And despite being a relatively popular and seemingly well-liked game, it's also frequently deeply discounted (for like $5 or less) in Steam's many summer and holiday sales. But for those who haven't played or heard of Super Meat Boy, read on. Also if you haven't seen Indie Game: The Movie, stop reading this and go watch it. I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix.

Super Meat Boy is the brainchild of artist Edmund McMillen and programmer Tommy Refenes, who call themselves Team Meat. It's actually the sequel to a 2008 browser based flash game which was just called Meat Boy. Check it out here for free if you're interested in trying it. Just know that the sequel is a massive improvement over the original. Tighter controls, better level design, better artwork, higher music quality, multiple playable characters and a lot more polish overall. Both Meat Boy and its sequel seem to have drawn a lot of inspiration from N, and/or N+ a.k.a. "The way of the Ninja" games, which are also free, flash-based games that I totally loved. The one thing these games all share is that they are infuriatingly difficult, but also excellently designed 2D platformers.

Each level of Super Meat Boy requires you to save Meat Boy's girlfriend, bandage girl, from the evil Dr. Fetus. This is accomplished simply by navigating from a starting point to an ending point on a 2D plane, but there are usually many deadly hazards in between. Once you get into the meat of the game -see what I did there?- you'll probably find this game to be extremely difficult. However, by using a well thought out difficulty curve and smart design decisions, I believe Super Meat Boy handles its difficulty extremely well. First of all, the levels are so short that you don't feel like you lose significant progress when you die. There's rarely a level that takes more than 60 seconds to beat.  It can still be frustrating when you die repeatedly on the same level, but because you respawn instantly at the beginning of the level, it makes you want to go right back at it again. It's the good kind of frustrating. The earlier levels introduce you to the precision platforming, wall jumping and sprinting. Then the later levels add more obstacles that incrementally increase the difficulty. By the end of the game, you're doing things that looked completely impossible when you started. It's still very hard, but it's an extremely satisfying difficulty curve.

Super Meat Boy has some really cool bonus features, unlockables and secrets included as well. There's a built in replay system where you can save and share your times and replays to any of your friends who also have the game. Finishing each level in the game under a certain amount of time will unlock a mirrored "dark world" version of the level which usually includes more obstacles or enemies and is even more difficult. There's also the collectible bandages found in the various levels which are usually either hard to find or hard to difficult to get to. These bandages, presumably dropped by bandage girl, can be used to unlock other playable characters which have different speeds or jump heights which add more flavor to the game. There's even hidden warp zones that lead to even more obnoxiously difficult levels for those who are into ridiculously hard challenges.

Summary:
Super Meat Boy is probably one of the most difficult games I've ever completed and I'm quite proud to have finished it. It's also probably responsible for the most swearing I've ever done while playing a game. But don't let the difficulty scare you off, Super Meat Boy is a must play if you're a fan of platformers. It's a difficult game, but it's also a rewarding one. It also boasts an excellent soundtrack and some really cool Castle Crashers-like cartoony graphics. There's also lots of very subtle references to Mega Man, Castlevania and Super Mario Bros. in the animations and artwork. It's good stuff. I'm also quite curious to see what Mew-Genics, Team Meat's upcoming game, is going to be like. If it's half as good as Super Meat Boy, I'll probably still love it.

Hotline Miami

Dennaton Games - 2012 - PC/Vita/PS3/PS4

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

Hotline Miami is a top-down fast paced action game set in Miami in the late 80s. You play as a delusional, mask wearing psychopath who receives cryptic voicemals on his answering machine instructing him to kill various groups of people. You'll use a combination of ranged and melee weapons to make a bloody pixelated mess of every single enemy on the screen before being allowed to proceed to the next stage.

First off, let me just say that this game's soundtrack is completely awesome. It's a collaboration between several different artists who each give their take on what the Miami neon nightlife of the 80s sounded like. Most of the tracks are kind of electronic/dance/techno of some sort, which isn't even my thing, but they all mesh perfectly together to give this game amazingly unique style. Just listen to tracks like Daisuke (El Huervo), Hotline (Jasper Byrne), Knock Knock (Scattle), Miami Disco (Perturbator), or Paris (M.O.O.N). All different artists, all amazing tracks. This is my favorite game soundtrack in recent memory for a few reasons. A: It's awesome. B: It's ****ing awesome C: It breaks the mold of having this fully orchestrated, symphonic sound that most modern games seem to be conforming to, especially the big budget ones. It's proof that modern games don't need or even shouldn't have that symphonic sound if they want to stand out and create a unique and memorable soundtrack. I really hope more developers/creative minds take note of the Hotline Miami soundtrack and we can start exploring new directions in game soundtracks. That's my rant on that. Anyway fun fact, Jasper Byrne, who contributed a few tracks to Hotline Miami's soundtrack, is also the same guy who developed Lone Survivor

So how does the game play? You'll need to switch up melee and ranged weapons to defeat each enemy in the level. Melee weapons are fast and silent, but if an enemy notices you approaching, you're probably toast. Ranged weapons allow you to combat enemies at a safer distance, but they usually makes a lot of noise which can attract other nearby enemies which is often more risky. Nearly every weapon in the game is a one hit kill though, so you have to constantly be on your toes. The game awards you on a point system for killing enemies more quickly or for killing several enemies in a row. Certain amounts of points can give you unlockable weapons and masks. Masks can enhance a certain playstyle or statistic. For example, there's a mask that increases your view distance, and there's also a mash that increases your running speed. Most of the masks I found didn't alter the gameplay too substantially though. The levels get progressively harder throughout the game and I died a ton, especially near the end. But dying evokes what I like to call "the good kind of frustration" in this game. It never feels unfair or like the game isn't playing by its own rules. If you die, it's probably your fault. You weren't careful enough, or you didn't pay attention to a certain enemy or you made a bad strategic decision. It's the kind of frustration that makes you want to replay the level over and over until you get it right.

In addition to the jammin' soundtrack, this game has a pretty unique art style as well. Everything is pixelated, which seems to be the indie game norm right now, but it still feels very unique to this game. During dialogue, all of the characters have ugly pixelated disembodied heads that hover eerily back and forth during conversation. This combined with the crazy psychedelic neon lights that constantly fade in and out in the background make the game feel just like a late 80s/early 90s PC game. But at the same time, it's still uniquely Hotline Miami. Later in the game, your character will start hallucinating and seeing visions of other people wearing animal masks, and also visions of mutilated bodies and dead corpses. It reminded me a bit of the hallucinations experienced by characters in Silent Hill, which I loved. The amount of violence in this game is also pretty high, but it's kind of offset by the game's pixelated art style. At the end of each level, you'll be standing on a mountain of bloody, pixelated corpses which gives a weird sense of awesomeness.

Summary:
If you can handle a bit of challenge, Hotline Miami is a good time. It's a bit short, a bit weird and a bit violent, but it has a lot of style. I'm looking forward to Hotline Mami 2 which should be out later this year.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Rare - 1995 - SNES

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

This game is my childhood. Which is ironic because I never actually owned this game. I can remember riding my bike down to Blockbuster video on the weekend and spending my allowance on renting this game again and again. I'm sure I probably spent enough money renting this game that I could have just bought it. I was a huge fan of the original Donkey Kong Country and this game was an excellent sequel. I remember how mind blowing it was when I found out there was a secret bonus world as a kid.

As an adult, I still love this game and I may have replayed it more now than I ever did as a kid. The platforming is excellently done. It requires a mix of skill, timing and precision and is very satisfying when pulled off correctly. In DKC2, Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by the vile Kaptain K. Rool and it's up to Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie to rescue him. Dixie can float and hover after her jumps while Diddy has a longer cartwheel attack and is a bit faster than Dixie. I remember as a kid loving the safety of Dixie's slow floaty jumps. Now I much prefer blasting through the levels as fast as possible with Diddy's speed.

Of course you can always play the levels more slowly, finding all of the bonus rooms, hidden DK coins and Kong letters. But to me, the satisfaction of perfectly speed running a DKC2 level is unmatched in any other platformer, even a Mario or a Sonic game. The level design in most levels is really excellent and lends itself to be a good challenge for speed running.

DKC2 was the first video game soundtrack I really fell in love with as a kid. I can remember putting a tape recorder up to the TV's speakers and recording the soundtrack on cassette tape so I could listen to it later. Even as an adult I love listening to it at work and David Wise is one of my favorite video game composers next to Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger). Stickerbrush Symphony, Hot Head Hop, and Disco Train are some highlights, but the whole soundtrack is really solid from top to bottom.

One interesting mechanic in the game that I don't think I've seen in any other platformers is that DKC2 actually kind of discourages you from saving too much. Each time you find a save point in a world, the first save is free. But each time you save the game after that, it costs 2 coins. If you're not playing the game on an emulator, it sort of makes you think twice before mindlessly and habitually saving after every single level. Kind of an interesting risk/reward mechanic, I think it like to see that implemented in modern games. I mean I've played this game enough times that actually beating the levels has become trivial and I rack up quite an abundance of extra coins, but a beginner to this game will likely find it quite challenging.

There's a really good difficulty curve in this game that teaches you the mechanics in the easier early levels, but then nicely matches your skill progression with more difficult levels as you advance through the game, which I feel is difficult to do in game design. Then the final levels and the secret world are a great and challenging test of you platforming skill and reflexes. There's also great variety in the level design between horizontal/vertical levels, climbing levels, underwater levels, barrel levels, minecart levels, animal levels and so on. The game can be played solo or tackled cooperatively although both players can't play simultaneously unfortunately.

Summary:
Check it out if you enjoy platformers, difficult games, or excellent soundtracks. To me, DKC2 stands shoulder to shoulder with Mario 3 and Sonic 2 as one of the best all-time platformers.

Spelunky

Derek Yu - 2009 - PC/X360/PS3/Vita

Spelunky is an extremely difficult indie Roguelike platformer. It’s Roguelike in that all of the levels, terrain and enemies in the game are randomly generated, which helps keep the game fresh and interesting. It reminded me quite a bit of Rogue Legacy with its excellent design and brutal difficulty.

The object of each level in Spelunky is to get to the exit, but you’ll have to navigate through lots of traps and other enemies in a randomly generated level. Your character will start with a limited supply of bombs and ropes to help you navigate the level. Bombs can be used to destroy terrain and dig deeper while ropes can be used to help you climb back up. You don’t always want to just race to the exit when you find it either, you’ll want to explore the level and gather as much gold and upgrades as you can find before leaving. But if you spend too long in any given level, a giant ghost that can kill you instantly appears to chase you out of the level. There’s also a maiden hidden in each level. If you bring her to the exit, she will restore one point of your health, so you’ll want to try to find and rescue her in each level. You’ll find shops hidden in each level where you can spend your gold to replenish your bombs/ropes, and buy weapons and upgrades. Spelunky also features local co-op which is pretty fun, but still just as hard.

Summary:
It’s a very difficult game, but if you don’t get frustrated it’s a very addictive game as well. I've actually yet to make it past the third level in this game, but I've gotten close a few times. Check it out if you enjoy difficult platformers

Rogue Legacy

Cellar Door Games - 2013 - PC

Another game oozing with really smart game design, Rogue Legacy is probably what you’d get if you crossed Castlevania with a “bullet hell” game like Ghouls N’ Ghosts. Like Castlevania, the main objective of Rogue Legacy is to explore a castle and defeat several bosses within it.

But what sets Rogue Legacy apart and makes it really fun and interesting is that, when you die - and you will die a lot - you get to choose between 1 of 3 children of the character you were just playing to avenge their parent and explore the castle. Each child may have genetic abnormalities or traits that make the game play differently each time. Some will directly affect gameplay, while others are just for flavor. For example, you may have a child who’s a midget. They’ll have a smaller hitbox and be able to go through small openings, but they may also take more knockback. Or you might have a child who’s colorblind. Then the game is played in black and white until you die again. And each time you die, the layout of the castle is randomly rearranged, so it’s kind of like playing a brand new game each time. You’re also free to swap out skills and equipment to experiment with different playstyles if you’re stuck on a boss. Really cool stuff. On top of that, you’ll inherit your items from your parent when they die, but the game makes you spend the money you inherit on upgrading new items or skills before you reenter the castle. So each time you die, there’s a kind of moment where you think “Crap I died…But now I get to choose a new character and upgrade their items and skills!” A neat mechanic because it makes you never feel overly frustrated when you die. Which is good, because this game is hard. And you’ll die. A lot.

Summary:
I can’t really think of too many negative criticisms of this game, it’s very solid and well designed. Again, not too pretty to look at, but that doesn't matter to me for a game like this. Maybe the soundtrack was a bit unremarkable, but that’s nitpicking. Check out Rogue Legacy if you can handle a challenge.

FTL

Subset Games - 2012 - PC

I think FTL is probably my favorite new game I played this year, I absolutely loved this game. FTL is pretty much Star Trek: The videogame, but without the license. You manage the crew and systems of a starship while exploring the galaxy and fighting aliens. The gameplay sessions of FTL are typically short, you play until you die. So depending on your luck, skill, and familiarity with the game, a session can last between 15 minutes to maybe 2 hours.

What kept me playing this game again and again is that everything in a play session is randomized: The layout of the galaxy is different each time, the encounters you’ll experience are different each time, and the weapons and upgrades you’ll get are different each time. Each upgrade you get will likely change your battle strategy and tactics too, so it never feels like you’re doing the same thing over again. Plus completing certain achievements or sidequests in the game can unlock other starships you can use on your next playthrough that have totally different weapons and playstyles, so it kept me coming back for more. It really has some pretty brilliant game design.

FTL is also a fairly difficult game overall. There are currently only two difficulty settings: “easy” and “normal”. I probably would have labeled them “normal” and “hard”, but whatever. My only real knock on this game is that success in FTL can be dependent on which encounters you get, which is somewhat luck based. A few unlucky encounters in a row can be crippling, especially on normal(hard) difficulty. It’s also not that pretty of a game to look at either, but for an indie game made by a team of only two people, that’s to be expected. If you go and watch gameplay footage of FTL on YouTube, you’ll see what I mean.

Summary:
Don’t let its looks scare you off, I found FTL to be an excellent game. I think most gamers can enjoy this game, but I’d highly recommend it to fans of challenging strategy games or fans of Star Trek who’d like to see an actual good Star Trek game. I also hear the creators are releasing a free expansion pack with new weapons, ships and scenarios in the near future, so I’m pumped to play more FTL when that comes out.