Super Mario Sunshine

Nintendo - 2002 - Gamecube

I've been revisiting some of the Gamecube's greatest hits recently so I of course had to play through 2002's Super Mario Sunshine. Like Luigi's Mansion, this was the first time I had played through this game in maybe 15 years and this game holds up too, but man does it have some giant flaws. 

First of all, this is probably the most dialogue and cutscene heavy of any of the mainline Mario games. Which in and of itself is not a bad thing but Super Mario Sunshine opens with about 15 minutes of unskippable cutscenes and dialogue before you're finally set free in Delphino Plaza. 15 minutes is an eternity for a Mario game where I really don't care about the story or Mario's motivations. I just want to run and jump around. Although the whole FLUDD and pollution clean up is a very weird angle for a Mario game, I think the hover, turbo boost and rocket jump are a good addition to the 3D Mario moveset. The first few levels with wide sprawling areas and lots of upward vertical movement are a perfect compliment for the new moves given to Mario with FLUDD. The hovel nozzle allows you to steady your aerial approach when trying to land on the small bouncy cables and the rocket boost allows you to get up high quickly if you fall off. I think there's some decent level design on display here, but let me highlight one of the worst and most egregious errors in player input mapping I have ever seen. Ricco Harbor and Pinna Park both feature vertical AND horizontal chain link fence link surfaces that Mario can climb on. While Mario is climbing on a vertical fence, his A button is mapped to "jump" while his B button is mapped to a punch command which can hit enemies climbing on the opposite side of the fence. While Mario is hanging from a horizontal fence surface, his A button is mapped to the punch command while his B button LETS GO OF THE FENCE. NO, NO, NO! Bad! Bad! Bad! The horizontal controller mapping is the exact opposite on the vertical controller mapping! Pinna Park has vertical fences placed right next to horizontal fences with enemies crawling on either surface. I can not tell you how many times I accidentally fell off of the level while attempting to punch an enemy with the same button I had just pressed a second ago. Terrible. 

This game's other huge problem is with the concept of a difficulty curve. The curve is all over the place with this game. In some levels, the stars get easier as you go. This is most noticeable at the end of the game where you're required to paddle through lava and jump through clouds in a relatively difficult platforming challenge. Then you fight Bowser which has got to be one of the easiest things to do in the entire game. I beat him in about 30 seconds on my first try. The other noticeable difficulty spikes are with the "secret" stars. The ones that require you to complete a platforming challenge without the use of FLUDD. I think the idea here is that FLUDD makes some of the platforming too easy. You can sort of use FLUDD to compensate for mistimed or misspaced jumps, so taking FLUDD away would lend for some interesting platforming challenges. The problem is that you get so used to using FLUDD to "cheat" that the platforming becomes that much more hard when its taken away from you. Add in the fact that making a platforming error on one of these stages usually results in Mario plummeting to his death instantly and now you've got some really unforgiving and incredibly challenging stages. Which is fine. But these "secret" stars are relatively much, much more difficult than most other stars.

Okay one last nitpicky thing. Remember Hotel Delphino on Gelato Beach? It was the one infested with a bunch of Boo ghosts. It was actually my favorite level as a kid. It was my least favorite this time around. There's a star that requires you to get Yoshi up to the attic to get past some Boos since they can only be defeated by being eaten by Yoshi. It's possible to fall through the attic into a room that you can only exit by opening a door. As far as I can tell, you cannot open doors while riding Yoshi. Which means you have to leave him in the room you fell into and he's trapped until he despawns, which is on a timer. The problem is a new Yoshi won't respawn until the old one dies, so if you fall into these rooms, you're basically stuck waiting two or three minutes for your Yoshi to die. Bad design. Oh also the underwater levels still suck in Sunshine.

Summary

I know I've done pretty much nothing but complain about Super Mario Sunshine, but I still think it's a good game. I mean if you compare it to other Mario games, it's probably average. But in the grand view of all video games, it's still good. It's worth taking another look at if you played it 15 years ago like I did, but I'm not sure I could recommend this one for a new player. It's far from Mario's best offering. For that, check out Super Mario 3D World.

Inside

Playdead - 2016 - XboxOne/PC/PS4

Inside is the follow up to Playdead studio's 2010 critical success Limbo. Playing Inside will feel very familiar if you've played Limbo previously. Even though their gameplay is nearly identical, the two game's universes are not related in any way that is expressed explicitly by the game and you don't need to have played Limbo before Inside or anything like that. Inside begins, like its predecessor, with no narrative or explanation as you control a boy in a highly stylized world who runs to the right and tries to avoid the many dangers along the path of right-running. Inside never really deviates from the formula laid out by Limbo. Instead, Inside seems more interested in being the most highly polished version of what Limbo was.

Immediately noticeable is Inside's distinct art style. It's not strictly the same style as Limbo's, but I had the same response to gorgeous and striking visuals as I did when playing Playdead's first title. Not only is the art style highly polished, but the animations are noticeably very smooth. Every animation seamlessly flows into the next in a way that is both very impressive and also makes me wonder exactly how much time it took the animators and programmers to accomplish what they did.

If you haven't played Limbo, Inside is a puzzle platformer at its core. Most puzzles involve manipulating background physics objects or buttons or switches in such a way that will open a blocked path and allow you to progress. There is death in the game, but your character immediately respawns in nearly the same location you were before, except maybe the puzzle room is reset. Dying is included in the game for the most part to just serve the functional purpose of informing the player that they got the solution to the puzzle wrong. It's more about puzzles than platforming and I'd even say, especially in the case of Inside, it's more about experiencing the strange game world and the story than it is about solving puzzles

It's a little difficult to talk about the story and themes of Inside without spoiling anything, but there is absolutely no dialogue and no cutscenes. All of the story is communicated through the gameplay, the background elements and artwork and also through environmental storytelling. This is something I really appreciate since it's so much more difficult to tell an interesting story in a non-traditional fashion such as this one.

Summary

Just like Limbo, Inside is a short-ish puzzle platformer in a visually striking world. Your opinion of Inside will likely be the same as Limbo, but if you've never experienced a Playdead game before, I'd recommend giving Inside a shot. It's a dark and beautiful game world that's worth checking out

BattleBlock Theater

The Behemoth - 2013 - X360/PC

BattleBlock Theater is the third game from developer The Behemoth whose previous games are Alien Homnid and Castle Crashers. It was designed by Dan Paladin (aka Synj) and Tom Fulp, both of Newgrounds.com fame and features the same art style and sense of humor you'd expect if you've played The Behemoth's previous games or are aware of their Newgrounds submissions. BattleBlock Theater is a cooperative 2D platformer that requires two players, connected either online or played locally to navigate through a series of levels that require players to be good platformers, puzzle solvers, and beat-em-up-ers. 

The core gameplay in BattleBlock is mostly good, but what makes this game stand out is the humor. In a bizarre but funny opening cutscene, a narrator (voiced by Will Stamper who is also an active Newgrounds contributor) explains that several friends have been shipwrecked on an island full of cats, because this game's roots are in internet culture. The cats have captured the surviving members of the shipwreck, including Hatty Hattington, the former captain of the ship. The cats, now lead by Hatty Hattington who appears to be the victim of mind control, are forcing the survivors to participate in gladiatorial like challenges in a theater for the cats amusement, which is the very ridiculous context to the actions you're performing throughout the game. The narrator is the real star of BattleBlock Theater and will chime in frequently to comment on the actions you're performing during each stage. When an entire level is complete, you'll be treated to another cutscene featuring the narrator sometimes explaining what's happening in the plot, but mostly just being funny with this game's uniquely weird sense of humor.

Each stage requires both players to cooperate to navigate through a series of traps and enemies, all the while collecting green gems. When enough gems are collected, the stage exit is unlocked, allowing you to advance to the next one. But if you really want to be a completionist, you can try to search for all of the gems in each level. There are two difficulty settings on BattleBlock theater, "Normal" and "Insane", both of which I think are very flawed. On normal when a player dies, they instantly respawn next to their partner. There's pretty much no challenge with this difficulty and because there's practically no punishment or consequence for dying, players are free to be as careless as they want while progressing through each level. This may be fine for some, but I personally need a little more tension and challenge while playing, so I opted for "Insane" mode. In insane mode, when either player dies, both players are forced to restart the entire level. From the beginning. Now this is fine for the first few handfuls of levels, but when the number of enemies and difficulty of platforming starts to rise near the middle of the game, this mode starts to get really frustrating, especially when you pull off a difficult section perfectly, but your partner dies and both players are forced to start the entire level over. I think BattleBlock could have really benefited from some different difficulty settings here. Either a checkpoint system or a number of lives other than just one would have been very, very welcome. This is a relatively simple thing that I think unfortunately really hamstrings BattleBlock Theater

BattleBlock Theater Video Review

Summary 

Overall though, this is still a pretty solid game. It's another good couch co-op game, a type of game which I personally love and have been enjoying its recent resurgence. There are also several competitive mini games included here, most of which I actually didn't mess around with much, but they look like they could be fun if you're into competing rather than cooperating. There's also a built in level editor if you want to make your own sinister stages for your friends to navigate through. All in all BattleBlock Theater is a good game to share with friends, and features the most absurdly weird, yet still funny sense of humor you'll find in a video game

Super Mario Maker

Nintendo - 2015 - WiiU

I think this game along with Minecraft would have been the two most amazing games for me to have as a kid. These are the kinds of creative games that would have captivated me for days and weeks. As it stands they're still quite captivating to me, but I simply don't have the free time to pour days and days into these games. For the uninitiated, Super Mario Maker isn't really a Mario game as much as it is an official Mario level editor. You can post your levels online to share and also play levels others have created. So it's either not a Mario game at all, or it's an infinite amount of Mario games, depending on how you look at it

The editor is functionally easy to use and create levels. You simply drag items from the toolbar and place them on the stage. It's a nice use of the WiiU tablet and is finally something first party from Nintendo that makes the WiiU tablet feel justified. Although the editor is functionally easy to use, figuring out its strange hidden quirks and odd UI design can be baffling at times. In what I can only imagine was a need to conserve UI space, certain items are hidden under other items, requiring you to shake item A to reveal item B. But not all items are shakable, and there's no way to tell whether or not they are other than trial and error. Furthermore, menu options and menu navigation are obfuscated in the UI by labeling them under random animals. How do I save my level? Do I click the dog? The robot? The frog? I know Super Mario Maker is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Mario Paint and Mario Paint used some of these UI oddities, but that doesn't make it any easier for people like myself who didn't play a ton of Mario Paint and/or don't remember what the various animals mean in relation to the UI. It may sound like I'm nitpicking, but I really did find this UI totally unintuitive.

When designing levels, you can do so under the original Mario template, the Mario 3 template, the Super Mario World template or the New Super Mario Bros. template. Choosing which template you want also dictates what abilities Mario will have when playing the level. For instance, Super Mario World Mario can spin jump and use Yoshi and the cape powerup. New Super Mario Bros. Mario can do all of these things as well as wall jump.

Once you dig in and start messing around with building levels, it really starts to bring to life how awesome the level designers at Nintendo are. Once you build a few things yourself and realize how hard it actually is to make a good level, it gives you an appreciation for how good the Nintendo level designers are at what they do. This is further exemplified when playing other creator's courses online. Unfortunately, I'd have to say the majority of the levels I've played online aren't that good and some are just downright garbage. There are some levels that are quite good, but finding them is a difficult task. The level filtering, searching and discovery options that exist in the game right now leave a lot to be desired. Nintendo has said they're working on a web portal that would partially solve that problem, but at the time of writing this review, that solution doesn't exist. Another thing I'd really like to see added is the ability to upload multiple levels together to make a "world" or a series of levels as opposed to uploading single standalone levels. Hopefully this is something they're working on as Nintendo has seemed willing to patch in additional content for this game already with the addition of checkpoints and conditional powerup items being added after launch

Super Mario Maker Video Review

Summary
Although the UI is confusing and there are a few features missing that I'd like to see added, Nintendo has otherwise succeeded in creating a tool that lets anyone with an imagination create a Mario level, bring it to life and share it with others. The drawback to this is that anyone with an imagination can create a Mario level, bring it to life and share it with others so there's a lot of, shall we say, not so great levels to sift through when looking at random stages online. Still, I've already spent many hours playing others' stages and have enjoyed making a few of my own and I look forward to spending more time in the future doing both in Super Mario Maker.

P.S. Here's a few of the stages I've made if you have the game and want to give these a shot:

James' evil castle: E1F2-0000-0034-E50A
The first level I ever made in Mario Maker. It's in the style of Mario 3. Not by best level; it was mostly me experimenting with the editor

P Switch Shenanigans: 6446-0000-003F-A95E
A difficult level in the style of Super Mario World designed for expert Mario players

Look Closely: 9244-0000-008C-61AD
I made a puzzle game in the style of Mario 3. See if you can figure out how to get through it

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.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Moon Studios - 2015 - PC/XboxOne

You may remember this game from its brief demo at E3 last year (2014) where a white squirrel thing was shown jumping through beautiful scenery. It was one of the most visually memorable trailers I saw at E3 last year. And I'm happy to report the game is just as strikingly beautiful as its trailer. Ori and the Blind forest is a Metroidvania style platformer and is the first game from indie developer Moon Studios. I suspect Moon Studios is comprised of at least a couple industry veterans as this game is beautiful, very well designed and oozes quality.

Before being published by Microsoft, Ori and the Blind Forest was developed in the Unity engine over the course of four years. Moon Studios cited the Rayman and Metroid franchises as influences for these games, and that's immediately obvious in both the high quality artwork (Rayman) and gameplay (Metroid). I'm personally a big fan of Metroidvania style gameplay, but since the Metroid series is somewhat MIA right now and Castlevania seems to be content making God of War clones, I've had to turn to other games like Ori to get my Metroidvania fix

If you've never played a Metoidvania style game before, the game is usually set in a large, non-linear game world with an emphasis on exploration and finding secrets. They often feature some sort of blend of platforming and combat, and often have light RPG elements where you can progress and improve your player character. Ori chooses to go somewhat light on the combat aspect (most enemies can be defeated by simply mashing the attack button), but instead focus most of the difficulty in the game around platforming. I didn't find the combat in this game that engaging or challenging at all, but there were a few segments that demanded perfect execution of precision platforming in a limited amount of time and messing up required repeating the entire platforming segment. It never felt TOO frustrating, but it was close.

Aside from this game's striking visuals, the first unique thing I noticed about it is that Ori will let you save nearly anywhere you like and at any time you like, provided there are no enemies nearby and you also have enough "spirit energy", which this game uses as currency for saving. Since the player can save anywhere and anytime they wish, Ori is free to ramp up the difficulty of the platforming to a pretty high level and also introduce enemies and hazards that can kill you in one hit. But it never feels unfair because you only lose as much progress since you last saved. I found I had enough spirit energy to comfortably save about every 30 seconds. It's kind of the Super Meat Boy effect. The game is quite difficult and you'll die often, but it never becomes too frustrating or feels too unfair because you only lose about 5-10 seconds of progress and then the game immediately brings you right back to try again.

Ori and the Blind Forest Video Review

Summary 
If you like Metroid or Castlevania styled games, or games like Guacamelee!, for instance, you may want to give Ori a try. Or if you dig really artsy and visually striking games, Ori also applies. I really enjoyed my time with Ori and the Blind Forest and am looking forward to see what's next from Moon Studios

Rayman Legends

Ubisoft - 2013 - PC/PS3/PS4/Vita/WiiU/X360/XboxOne

If you're looking for excellent platformers, or great couch co-op experiences, the WiiU is the next-gen console you want. To me, what sets the WiiU apart from any of the other next gen consoles are its tablet and its first-party games. The first-party games for WiiIU are the high level of quality you'd expect from Nintendo. Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4 are great and Super Mario 3D world is the best Mario game I've played to date. But I've noticed Nintendo doesn't really know how to implement its own tablet into its own first-party games. Mario Kart 8 simply maps the touch screen to a horn, Smash 4 only uses it to duplicate what's on the TV screen while Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze opts to turn the tablet screen completely off. None of these are inherently bad designs, but it's curios to see Nintendo stumped about what to do with its own hardware. Sure, Mario 3D World does have some light uses of the tablet where occasionally the game will require you to touch some block or something. But nothing like Rayman Legends. I know this game is on a plethora of other platforms, but you NEED to play the WiiU version of this game that utilizes all of the functionality of the WiiU tablet. I'm sure the developers would agree. I also hope Nintendo developers have played this game and are taking notes on how to properly utilize the gamepad.

The beauty of playing this game with the WiiU gamepad comes into play when there's at least more than one player playing the game. One player can play with a Wii Remote or Pro controller and plays through the platforming in a traditional fashion while the other player plays with the tablet screen and is tasked with helping the platforming player progress through levels. This is accomplished by touching to move and slide walls or platforms on the tablet screen or by keeping the platforming player safe by tapping to tickle monsters or by deflecting projectiles away from hitting the platforming player. It seems like each level has a new and inventive use of the tablet's touch screen that made playing each level fun and fresh. Neither the tablet player nor the platforming player are performing the same set of actions either, but both sets of actions are necessary for the level to be completed. This type of asynchronous gameplay experience is especially well implemented in Rayman Legends and requires both the tablet player and the platforming player to work together as a team to solve puzzles and complete the level. This, to me, is also why the definitive version of Rayman Legends can only be played on the WiiU and is probably best played with a partner.

Another thing that sets Rayman Legends apart from other platformers is its use of music. I've seen it before in other games where some background elements will move or dance in time with the music, but Rayman Legends takes this to another level. A lot of Rayman Legends levels require you to actually do platforming actions in time with music. If what I'm describing doesn't make sense, check out this video. But if you do, it may detract from the joy of discovering Rayman Legend's musical levels for yourself for the first time. The musical levels were so cool and I'd love to see this concept implemented in other platformers or even other game genres

Rayman Legends Video Review

Summary
Rayman Legends is one of the best platformers I've played in a long time and I'm enjoying seeing this resurgence of platformers and couch co-op experiences on the WiiU. The WiiU version of Rayman Legends also makes great use of the WiiU gamepad to implement a fun asynchronous co-op experience for both players. The music levels are wonderful and the game does have a great soundtrack in its own right too. Oh and it even features some of the best levels taken from Rayman Origins too! This is a great game and a must-play if you like platformers, co-op play, excellent music and art direction, or creative implementation of asynchronous gameplay

Super Mario 3D World

Nintendo - 2013 - WiiU

When I was a kid, I always thought about how cool Super Mario Bros. would be if it were multiplayer. Yes, yes, I know, the original Super Mario Bros. was 2 player, but not in the way I wanted. I wanted simultaneous multiplayer where two players could sit down and play through a level cooperatively. I finally got my wish in 2009 with the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It was a great game, but the multiplayer was pretty chaotic, even with just 2 people. Even when you weren't intentionally trying to do so, it was pretty hard not to screw over your partners while playing the game. It was too easy to be bumped into a hole by a friend, eaten by a partner's Yoshi or be hit by a friendly Koopa shell that was intended for an enemy. My friends and I nicknamed it "The Friendship Ruining Game". Thankfully, Mario 3D world fixes these problems... mostly. There will still be times when one player bounces off another's head accidentally, but it's still such a welcome improvement over New Super Mario Bros. since Mario 3D world offers the players so much more room to move around in its large 3D plane. Things can still get hectic at times if you're playing with four players and everyone is scattering to the corners of the screen to do their own thing. But for the most part, this is a very tight platformer where it's more fun to play co-op than by yourself

Super Mario 3D World feels like a return to form for the Mario franchise. It seems as though Nintendo thought about what made each of the previous Mario games good, polished the crap out of it and incorporated it into Mario 3D world. There's the basic level layout with powerups and the flagpole at the end of each stage from the Original Super Mario Bros. There's the four unique characters from Mario 2, each with their own speeds/jumping ability (Toad FTW). There's the world Map from  Mario 3 complete with toad houses, hammer bros. battles and other hidden secrets. There's all of the Koopa Kids from Super Mario World, each in their own fortress and each with their own pattern to figure out and conquer. There's the 3D free roaming gameplay from Mario 64 complete with its signature wall jumps, long jumps and somersaults through the air. There's the brilliant level design of the Mario Galaxy games (and even some cameos from Mario Galaxy characters). And obviously, the co-op gameplay from the New Super Mario Bros. games. There's even a nod to the original Mario Kart in one of the levels. Mario 3D World is not without its own identity either. There's a unified theme throughout the game of... cats. Yeah, like kittens. Cats, strangely enough. One of the first new powerups you'll obtain is the cat suit which allows you to climb walls, scratch and pounce on enemies, and most importantly let out a character specific "Meow" at the end of each level which is admittedly pretty adorable.

Super Mario 3D World Video Review

Summary
Mario 3D world is just FUN to play. It's really such a joy. Each level is completely different from the last and has its own unique feel with its own hidden secrets to find. There was so much care and polish put in to this game. It's the full realization of what my dream of what a 3D co-op Mario game could be as a kid. It's also the first 3D Mario game to be in true HD and it looks wonderful. It's the system seller the WiiU so desperately needs and it very well may be the best Mario game to date.

Portal

Valve - 2007 - PC/PS3/X360

(On my Top 10 Favorite Games list)

Continuing my little list of favorite games, this week I want to write about portal. I'm quite aware that most everyone who is reading this is probably already quite aware of the brilliance of Portal, but if there is by some chance some soul out there that is reading this and hasn't played this game, YOU NEED TO PLAY IT. Portal gets an emphatic and universal recommendation for me no matter what gaming preferences are or what genres you usually gravitate towards. It is that important of a game. 

Back in 2007, Valve released "The Orange Box" in retail stores. It was a combo pack of Half Life 2, both Half Life 2 episodes, Team fortress 2, and a little game called Portal. I bought the Orange Box mostly for Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 as these were titles I was already familiar with. Portal was pushed to the side for a while while I played the other games. HL2 and TF2 were fantastic games, but when I finally started Portal, my mind was totally blown. I don't use that term lightly either. I can count on one hand the number of games whose mechanics have blown my mind. The original Pokemon blew my mind. Mario 64 blew my mind. Ocarina of Time blew my mind. And Portal blew my freaking mind. 

So for those who are reading this and are unaware, the main gameplay mechanic in Portal is the titular portal gun. The gun allows the shooter to create two separate spatial rifts on flat surfaces that connect one place to another. For instance, if I placed one portal on my floor and one on my ceiling, I could jump down through my floor and come out of the ceiling. Or if I placed one portal in my kitchen and one in my bedroom, I could have an easy shortcut for getting midnight snacks. You can start to imagine the gameplay and puzzle possibilities with this mechanic. The spatial reasoning puzzles were absolutely mind bending and I loved it. Even the momentum based platforming challenges were a blast. The gameplay varied from puzzles to platforming to bullet dodging and sometimes blended all three. The entire game felt fresh and each room was a new challenge to conquer

From a game design, balancing and difficulty curve perspective, this game is as close to perfection as I think I'll ever see a game come. It's a game that knows its mechanics are difficult to grasp for first time players, so it starts out slow to make sure the player understands the basics before things get more complicated. It first introduces the basics of how portals work before it even gives you the gun. Then once you get the gun, it only shoots one end of a portal at a time while the other connecting portal remains stationary to help minimize unwanted confusion while players are adjusting to the mechanics of the game. Then once all of the mechanics are introduced, the game starts slowly ramping up the difficulty of the puzzles and platforming at a perfect pace to match the player's understanding and comfortability with the game. Once you master one mechanic, the next room throws a different one at you. Or sometimes even layers several mechanics from previous rooms all together to make sure you understand them all. Another important thing Portal does is that it never outstays its welcome. Right when it's done throwing all of its layers of tricky game mechanics at you, the game winds down. It winds down particularly well with a satisfying and hilarious boss fight too, but my point is that there is nothing that feels stretched out or tacked on with Portal. Every part of that game feels very necessary and deliberate. It's totally brilliantly constructed and Portal is my gold standard for excellent game design

Also not to be forgotten about is Portal's excellent sense of humor. There's really only two characters in Portal, yourself and the intelligent computer system guiding you through the maze of rooms who is known as GLaDOS. Since your player character is silent, all of the humor in the game is delivered through GLaDOS. It's a subtle type of humor. The game initially wants you to trust GLaDOS as she is the voice who is instructing and coaching you through the test chambers. But then every once in a while, GLaDOS will utter a line of dialogue that makes you think "wait, what?" "did the computer just say what I think it said?". A lot of these lines are intentionally humorous and the game uses this subtle humor to eventually break down the trust that you place in GLaDOS in the beginning of the game as it slowly becomes obvious that GLaDOS is trying to kill you. The game brilliantly uses its subtle brand of humor throughout the course of the game and it has become famous for well known memes based around "the weighted companion cube" and "The cake is a lie".

Portal video review:

Summary:

Portal is an experience that every gamer should have. The puzzles are mind-bendingly brilliant, the platforming is fun and challenging, and the subtle humor keeps the game interesting throughout its duration. Portal 2 was a great game as well, but it didn't really add anything THAT new or mind blowing other than the multiplayer. The game's humor was still really funny, but it was more of an "in your face" comedy than the subtle "what did she say?" style. In any case, you absolutely must play Portal if you haven't already. It's my favorite video game in the last 15 years. 

A Story About My Uncle

Gone North Games - 2014 - PC

A Story About My Uncle is the first game from Gone North Games, a small indie studio based in Sweeden. According to their website, Gone North Games was founded by 9 students who have a passion for making games. Since it's advertised all over their website and apparently important to the developers, I'll repeat it here - A Story About My Uncle is a completely non-violent video game. This isn't really an entirely novel concept for a game, but it is unusual I suppose. For better or worse, most games do rely on some sort of violent combat as their main game mechanic. I do think it's cool that games like Gone Home or To The Moon are using video games purely as a story telling medium. But unfortunately, A Story About My Uncle doesn't tell a very interesting story. It is a pretty fun platformer though which is really what this game stands on

The game begins as you, the narrator, are reading your daughter a bedtime story. The entire rest of the game is played out as a flashback as the narrator recounts how he, as a boy, used to play with his uncle at his uncle's house. One day, the narrator's uncle went missing and you soon find out that he was transported to a distant magical world through some transporter device that the narrator's uncle invented. The game is a little vague on the details of how exactly this transporter was invented or how it works, but the narrator of course uses it to travel to this other world in search of his uncle. That's pretty much all the exposition you get. I mean that's it for the rest of the game. You meet some other characters and go to new locations, but the story never really progresses at all. You're just searching for your uncle the whole game. That's it. And then (spoiler alert) the game just kind of ends abruptly at a certain point and the credits roll. Nothing is really resolved and nothing really changes, just "The End". It was very anti-climactic and disappointing. It almost seemed rushed, like they might have been trying to go somewhere with the story, but had to cut a lot of it to meet deadlines or something like that. In any case, I somewhat ironically found the story in A Story About My Uncle to be underdeveloped and uninteresting.

Near the beginning of the game, the narrator discovers some magical super-bouncy boots and some magical grappling tether thing which serve as the game's platforming mechanics. I can't remember what the game actually called the boots and grapple device and I'm too lazy to look it up, but these definitely are what make this game fun and interesting. The boots allow you to jump crazy high and crazy far and the tether allows you to pull yourself closer towards certain parts of the terrain. Most of the terrain in the game is made up of small chunks of floating rock as shown in the cover art above, so the platforming can be kind of challenging in certain areas. Quick props to the graphic artists for this game, I found a lot of the floating terrain and world design to be really interesting from an artistic point of view. Very cool and imaginative artwork.

I prefer to play games laying down in my couch with a controller as opposed to sitting forward with a mouse and keyboard, even while playing PC games. So I'm not sure if it was just because I was playing with a controller, but there were some parts of this game that were really tricky to pull off. And I'm usually quite good at platformers. And that's fine, I enjoy a good challenge, but the difficulty curve with this game was a little wonky. There was one particular section near the end of the game that was insanely difficult, it probably took me 30-40 attempts to finally do it right. And then the rest of the game was mind-numbingly easy. My only other complaint, from a gameplay perspective, was with the level design. It was quite often not very clear where the game wanted me to go next, especially in the later levels where the terrain is separated by great distances. I had to jump around and try to grapple to things trail-and-error style until I finally found something that worked. The difficulty curve is forgivable, but in a linear platformer like this I feel like the player should always have a pretty good idea of where the game wants them to go next.

Summary:
It is definitely a flawed game, but if you like 3D platformers, you could do worse than A Story About My Uncle. It's got some really cool art design and fun platforming, but it has some design issues and the actual story might as well not even exist. It was also kind of short, I finished it in about 5 hours, but I found that length to be appropriate. All in all, not too bad for a small team making their first game. And as its developers insist, it's completely non-violent, if that's a selling point for you.

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.

Shovel Knight

Yacht Club Games - 2014 - PC/3DS/WiiU

Being born in 1987, I just caught the very tail end of the 8 bit NES era. Some of my earliest gaming memories are of playing 8 bit platformers on the NES like Mario 1/2/3, Contra and Milon's Secret Castle - Anyone remember that game? But I actually never grew up on the old Castlevanias and Megamans that Shovel Knight draws heavy influence from. The legendary difficulty of those games had discouraged me from playing them until very recently. While I feel I now appreciate those games, I don't think I would say that I enjoyed them. I just don't have the patience to bare through the brutal old school difficulty those games have. I was pleased to find out that unlike the games it's influenced by, Shovel Knight does an excellent job of easing the player into the game by slowly introducing the player to the mechanics and then incrementally ramping up the difficulty level. Don't worry, there's still some controller-snappingly difficult levels later in the game. But they come at a point where you're already too invested in the game to throw down the controller and give up in frustration... I'm looking at you, Mega Man 2.

In Shovel Knight, you play as Shovel Knight who uses - you guessed it - a shovel as his primary weapon. Shovel Knight is off to save his comrade and love interest, Shield Knight, from the clutches of the evil Enchantress. Along the way you'll have to defeat eight "boss knights", which is a clear reference to Mega Man's usual eight robot masters. Your shovel can be used to hit enemies directly in front of you similar to Simon's whip in Castlevania or it can be thrust downward to bounce off enemies like the "pogo bounce" in Ducktales. The shovel can additionally be used to dig up the many mounds of treasure found throughout the levels in the game. Treasure can be used to purchase weapon, armor or health upgrades or it can also be used to purchase various "relics" which give you powerful secondary abilities which cost magic power. Instead of using a "lives" system, each time you die in Shovel Knight, you'll lose a chunk of your treasure. However, in borrowing a page from Dark Souls, if you can get back to where you died previously without dying again, you can recover your lost treasure. Very cool design. Another interesting mechanic is that each checkpoint in a level can be optionally destroyed for a good sum of treasure. It's a neat risk/reward mechanic, but I was usually too scared to destroy any checkpoints in the game, especially in the later levels.

Nearly every aspect of Shovel Knight is designed to invoke 8 bit nostalgia. Everything from the menus to sound effects is very reminiscent of the NES era. It's actually possible to play the game with just four buttons and a D-pad, like a NES controller. The world map is very Mario 3-esque with optional mini-boss enemies that shuffle around the screen after completing every level. There's Zelda II like towns throughout the game where upgrades and new equipment can be purchased. Even the health boosts are potroasts in homage to Castlevania. There's some great 8 bit music as well: Strike the Earth, An Underlying Problem and La Danse Macabre are highlights from the soundtrack. Even the composition of the tracks somehow simultaneously reminded me of Castlevania and Mega Man.

Summary:
There really isn't too much negative I can say about Shovel Knight. It's a difficult game, but it's also a fair game. It introduces difficulty over time instead of beating you over the head with it like Shovel Knight's old school brethren. It is kind of short though, but at the same time I felt its length was appropriate. If you're a fan of old Castlevania or Mega Man games or even 2D platformers in general, you must check out Shovel Knight. You won't be disappointed.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Naughty Dog - 2001 - PS2/PS3/Vita

Remember when 3D platformers were a thing? Prior to playing Jak and Daxter, I couldn't even think of the last 3D platformer I played. I think the Mario games are kind of singlehandedly keeping that genre alive right now. But back in the late 90s/early 00s, they were all over the place. Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time were some of my favorite platformers from this era, but I somehow never played any of the Jak games. I was a little hesitant to try Jak and Daxter because I didn't have the best experience with the last Naughty Dog game I played. But a friend of mine was insistent that I must play Jak and Daxter, and I'm glad I did. It's absolutely worth a look if you dig 3D platformers.

The first thing that struck me about Jak and Daxter were the quality of the animations in the game. They're cartoony and exaggerated, but they bring the characters to life so well. Now it may be because I was playing the PS3/HD version of the game and it's hard to tell what they retouched and what was original, but Jak and Daxter may have some of the best animation work I've seen in a game. Which is astounding, considering the game was released in 2001. Great voicework too, which was also not the norm for games made in that era. The NPCs are all full of life and personality. It reminded me a lot of characters from Psychonauts, another excellent 3D platformer that everyone should play. It was strange because while the characters and game world had great personality, I felt the overall narrative/story of Jak and Daxter was totally phoned in. I mean the main villain of the game isn't even introduced until more than halfway through the game. Very weird. 

At a basic level, Jak and Daxter plays similarly to Mario 64. There are several "worlds" and each world has a certain amount of stars to collect, or "power cells" in the case of Jak and Daxter. One major difference though is that the world's layout is totally seamless in Jak and Daxter. For example in Mario 64, the castle sort of served as a hub world and each level was entered by jumping into a painting on the castle's wall. And while there's still "worlds" in Jak and Daxter, it's all seamlessly tied together as one giant island. No loading screens or anything like that, which was probably pretty technically difficult to do. I thought this was pretty cool, until I realized one terrible design problem: it takes FOREVER to get from one area to another. In Mario 64, you could just pause and select "exit world" or whatever. Here you have to walk all the way from one area to another, and the game world is pretty huge. It was super annoying when I wanted to go back and visit the earlier areas to pick up power cells that I had missed. So much walking. This game is in desperate need of a fast travel system. There are a few teleporters scattered across the island, but they're too few and far between to be that useful.

Mechanically, the game is pretty solid. Occasionally I felt like the double jump ability in the game felt unresponsive, but aside from that it's a pretty tight platformer. The levels are all very unique and have their own distinct personality. Some have mini-games or vehicle driving sections that can be completed for additional power cells. I feel that variety and cleverness in level design is really important in a platformer, otherwise your game starts to stale very quickly. Jak and Daxter nails this aspect of good game design. Upon entering a new area, I never knew what to expect, only that it would be different from what I was doing before. 

Summary:

If you miss the 3D platformers of yesteryear and have never played Jak and Daxter, it's worth a look. It's got a high amount of polish and style, but some gaping flaws in certain areas. It does character design well, but forgot to write a story for them. It has variety in level design and a huge open world island, but forgot to include a good fast travel system for it.  I'll be interested to play Jak 2 and 3 soon to see if they corrected some of these flaws and improved on the foundation they laid with The Precursor Legacy. 

Thomas Was Alone

Mike Bithell - 2012 - PC/PS3/Vita

What an unusual game this was. In Thomas Was Alone, you can switch control between several multi-colored rectangles while trying to guide them through each of the game's 100 levels. Throughout each level, a narrator with a British accent tells you what each of the rectangles is thinking or feeling. Each of the levels are very short and are completed by aligning each of your rectangles with its matching outline that is found somewhere in the level.

I found this game to be a bit disappointing and uninteresting. Oh it has interesting ideas, sure, but the execution of these ideas falls flat. For instance, the game's story is about these multicolored rectangles that are given names and personalities and are supposed to represent artificial intelligences in a computer system. But I couldn't remember which name belonged to which color rectangle and the story became very hard to follow. Even if I could remember who was what color, the story was pretty abstract and uneventful. The rectangles just wander around and you hear what they're thinking, but nothing interesting ever really happens to them. There's also several references to other games and pop culture, but they're not at all clever or well done. They're just kind of thrown in without purpose

The other interesting idea this game has - but doesn't execute well on - is the concept that each rectangle has a different ability. There's one that can double jump, one that can float in water, and one that has a bouncy trampoline-like property. But there's nothing really new or novel done with the puzzle solving sections that incorporates using all of your rectangle's abilities in a mechanically interesting way. There's one rectangle who's slow and fat and can't jump high. And nearly all of the puzzles in the game involve simply getting the fat rectangle to the end of the level which is usually time consuming and annoying. The puzzle solutions are almost always obvious and very frequently tedious. I feel Thomas Was Alone misses the fundamental point of why puzzle games are fun. In a good puzzle game, the fun is found in trying to figure out the solution to a difficult problem. You feel an endorphin rush when you have that "Ah ha!" moment and finally figure out a problem you've been stuck on. Carrying out the solution to a puzzle once you know what to do is usually not that fun or interesting. Thomas Was Alone presents you problems with obvious solutions over and over again. It's all execution and no critical thinking.

Summary:
I didn't really care for Thomas Was Alone. It doesn't have the charm or humor of Portal, it doesn't have the exhilarating platforming of Donkey Kong Country 2, and it certainly doesn't have the mind bending puzzles of Braid. But it's unique and it has its own identity. And I'd rather unique games like this be made than copy/paste sequels or games recycling the same ideas and gameplay for the millionth time

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.

Guacamelee!

Drinkbox Studios - 2013 - PS3/Vita/PC

Guacamelee! is a Mexican-themed beat em’ up platformer with puzzle solving elements and a very silly sense of humor. I don’t usually dig beat em’ up games, but I’m glad checked this game out, it’s pretty awesome. You play as Juan Aguacate, a Mexican farmer who dons a magical luchador mask to become a superpowered wrestler in order to save his kidnapped girlfriend.

The game can be played solo or co-op, a second player can assume the role of the female wrestler “Tostada”. I played through the game both solo and co-op. The co-op makes the platforming sections a bit more frantic, but makes the beat em’ up sections and boss fights quite a bit easier.

The game has some Metroidvania elements as well: as you progress through the game and unlock new wrestling moves, you’ll gain access to areas you previously unable to reach. As mentioned before, Guacamelee! also has a very silly sense of humor. It’s chock full of “nerd jokes”, internet humor and direct references to other video games. It was kind of a fun “can you spot them all?” subgame within Guacamelee!; trying to catch some of the more subtle video game references. There was even a Zelda II reference in there! How many people are really going to get that one?

Summary:
Guacamelee! is a bit on the short side, but it’s quite good. Check it out.