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.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Konami - 1997 - PS1/Sega Saturn/PSP

Symphony of the Night was an important departure in gameplay for the Castlevania series. Games in the series had previously been all 2D platformers, like the ones I was referencing in the Shovel Knight review. While SotN has some platforming elements, I don't think most people would describe it as a platformer. Rather, SotN helped give birth to the term "Metroidvania", which is used to describe gameplay that is exploration focused with a large, non-linear game world, often involves a good amount of backtracking, and revolves around discovering or unlocking upgrades to your character which are then to get to previously inaccessible areas. An example of this are the red doors in Super Metroid. They're introduced early in the game, but the player can only pass through them once they unlock Samus' missile launcher and realize that the missiles will open the red doors. Recently, Konami has put out games in the Castlevania series like Lords of Shadow 1 & 2, which are 3D action games similar to God of War or Devil May Cry. But when I think "Metroidvania", Symphony of the Night comes to mind as an example of one of the best games made in this style.

In addition to including "Metroidvania" style gameplay, SotN also includes RPG elements. Each enemy killed rewards a small amount of experience points. Primary weapons and armor can also be swapped out and upgraded. Some of the weapons and armor have unique bonuses or functions which lets your character configuration be very customizable. There are giant two handed greatswords which swing slowly, but have great range. Then there's one handed rapiers which swing quickly, but have a limited hitbox. Even the armors have unique functions such as restoring HP while walking or increasing the power of the alternate weapons. Speaking of which, the Castlevania staple alt weapons like the axe, holy cross or dagger make a return in SotN, further adding to the combat customization. 

Aside from being a departure in gameplay, SotN was also notable for being the first game in the series where you play as a member of the vampire hunting family Belmont only in the short prologue to the game. For the rest of the game you'll be playing as Alucard, who is actually the half vampire son of Count Dracula himself. Yes, "Alucard" is "Dracula" spelled backward. It's so campy and silly. I love it. You might think with dumb names like this, SotN would be a little self aware and have a bit of a sense of humor. But it kind of doesn't. SotN is actually features some pretty hilariously terrible voice acting and dialogue. The writing and VO work are about the only things in the game that aren't top notch though. The rest of this game is just so solid. 

If you do end up playing this game, I would challenge you to do so without referencing a guide. Discovering one of the castle's many secret rooms for yourself is immensely satisfying. And there are a lot of secrets. A lot. This is kind of a spoiler for those who haven't played the game but if you didn't fight Dracula as the final boss, you didn't really finish the whole game. There's actually a completely different second half of SotN that can be unlocked by finding special secret items in the castle. It's nuts. And finding all of these secrets and unlocks by yourself is just so rewarding. Besides, if you get stuck, you can usually consult the in-game map and figure out where you need to go just by closely examining the layout and flow of the castle. There's so much attention to detail in SotN from the combat and secrets to the enemy design and animations. There are so, so many unique enemy sprites with unique attacks and animations in the game. There are some enemies that appear literally one time in one room and then never again for the rest of the game. The amount of polish on the gameplay in SotN is one of the most impressive things about the game. 

The excellent soundtrack to SotN compliments the game very well. When you discover a new passageway and the track changes to something new you haven't heard before, it adds to the excitement of exploration. Composed by Michiru Yamane, the SotN soundtrack demonstrates Yamane's proficiency in a wide variety of musical styles. There's the jazzy upbeat Wandering of Ghosts, the gothic epic Final Toccata, the classical Wood Carving Partitia, the horrifying Door to the Abyss, the operatic Prayer, and the rockin' electric guitars of The Tragic Prince. The soundtrack is musically kind of all over the place and I love it. It gives each area of the castle a unique feel.

Summary:

If you've never played a Metroidvania game or a Castlevania game for that matter, start with Symphony of the Night. Even though the game is 15+ years old, the excellent gameplay and sprite art style allowed SotN to age very well. I hope Konami will return the Castlevania series back to this style of gameplay rather than the silly God of War clones they're trying to make right now. That's just not what I want from the Castlevania series. I'm not sure why the transition from 2D to 3D wasn't as graceful for the Castlevania series as it was for the Metroid series, but I'd love to see the next Castlevania be a 3D exploration game similar to Metroid Prime. Exploring a 3D castle with the amount of secrets and polish as the one in SotN would be amazing. Actually as long as the next game in the series is a Metroidvania, I think I'd be happy.

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. 

Device 6

Simogo - 2013 - Mobile

As of this writing, Device 6 is only available as an iOS download, which is a shame. Now I know most phone games, and most deservedly so, have a stigma attached to them for not being "real" games. I find most phone games to be mindless time-wasters, but Device 6 is certinaly an exception. It's too bad that the only method to download Device 6 is an app store that's cluttered with a bunch of other throwaway games, but the real shame that Device 6 is iOS-only is that I have no Apple devices to play it on! I've wanted to play this game ever since its release last year when it got boatloads of positive buzz. I finally got a chance to play it this week after borrowing a family member's iPad, and let me tell you, the hype is real.

In Device 6, you control a girl named Anna, who wakes up alone in a castle on an island with no memory of why or how she got there. As you guide Anna through the castle, you'll discover lots of the castle's weird and creepy secrets. The narrative was very self-aware and sometimes humorous. There were parts that reminded me of The Stanley Parable. But it was also often creepy and abstract. I admit there were a few elements of the story that seemed to be over my head. I couldn't tell if it was just me that wasn't following the story well enough, or if the narrative wasn't doing that great of a job getting its points across. Either way, I think Device 6 is well written, it's just kinda... out there. Which isn't to say that it's bad, it's just very different.

In an industry that has far too many clones, copycats and sequels, Device 6 is proof that there is still a very deep well of creative narrative and fresh new ideas that modern games are just beginning to drill into. From a presentation standpoint, Device 6 is completely unlike anything I've ever played before. The narrative is presented to the player as text on a screen that the player scrolls across using finger swiping motions. The text will sometimes change it's positional location or rotation based on what's happening in the story. For instance if Anna walks down a flight of stairs, the text will slope diagonally downward. And if Anna has a decision on which way to go, the text will branch off in opposite directions, allowing the player to choose which way Anna will go by swiping their finger in the desired direction. While you swipe your finger to move the text, the sound of footsteps can be heard. If Anna arrives at a door, a door opening sound effect is played while the text scrolls. Occasionally pictures are shown alongside the text when Anna sees something of importance. These pictures frequently contain clues to puzzles and often employ a very cool looking parallax scrolling effect. The audiovisual presentation of this game is so unique and gives the game a very distinct style

Device 6 has excellent puzzle design, but it's different from the puzzles in a game like Braid. In Braid, all of the puzzles had to do with manipulating objects or locations in the game engine. Device 6 presents you mysteries and then offers you clues in the narrative or in the pictures included with the narrative. It's just as brilliant, but in a different way. It reminded me of old school adventure games like Myst which I used to love as a kid. Just like in Myst, I had a pen and paper out to take notes with the entire time I was playing Device 6. Not a lot of games are designed that way anymore. The only thing slightly negative I can say about Device 6 is its length. It's pretty short. I knocked it out in about 3-4 hours. Usually I'm a fan of shorter game experiences, as long as they're priced right (Device 6 is currently $3.99). But I enjoyed my time with Device 6 so much that I was left wanting more when the ending came. I guess that could also be a good thing though, depending on how you look at it.

Summary:

If you like puzzle games, unusual stories, or games that are completely unlike anything you've ever played before, you must play Device 6. It's just so unique and different and oozes creativity and style. That alone should be reason enough to play it. Just be aware that it's pretty short and pretty weird. I hope its developer, Simogo, will eventually port Device 6 to platforms other than iOS so more people get a chance to play this. In any case, Simogo is now on my "cool developers" list and I'll be looking forward to their next project.

The Wolf Among Us

Telltale - 2013 - PC/PS3/X360/Mobile

Looking back at some of the things I played last year, I think Heavy Rain might be one of the most important games I played. It was a flawed game, but I enjoyed it immensely. I loved the focus on interactive storytelling and the fact that it was not necessarily worried about being a "game-y" game. It opened the door for me to play other excellent interactive narrative games like 999, To the Moon and Gone Home. But despite the fact that I know I love these types of games, I still had to be sold on The Wolf Among Us. I belonged to the very small camp of people who wasn't completely blown away by Telltale's breakout hit, The Walking Dead game. Although I admit it probably had more to do with the setting and themes of the story than the actual quality of the game. No more zombies for a while, okay popular media? I'm burned out on zombies. But I'm happy to report that The Wolf Among Us won me over and it feels just as fresh and compelling as Heavy Rain did the first time I played it.

The Wolf Among Us is based on the Fables comic book series which I had never heard of prior to playing this game. The basic premise of Fables, and consequently The Wolf Among Us, is that fairy tale characters are real and have adopted magical human disguises to live alongside normal people. TWAU follows the lives of several fairy tale creatures, or "fables" as the game calls them, who are living in a small community called "Fabletown" within New York City. You play as sheriff Bigby Wolf (The Big Bad Wolf) whose job it is to protect and maintain order in Fabletown. Not too long into the game, one of the fables in Fabletown is murdered, which puts Bigby on the trail of a mysterious and dangerous killer

I really liked the setting and themes in this game. It places fairy tales, which we usually think of as light-hearded children's stories, in a dark, gritty and seedy New York City. It deals with mature themes like murder, drugs and prostitution. The narrative loves to dance in morally gray areas and force the player to make morally ambiguous choices throughout the game. The fables themselves are also really interesting and are brought to life through great voice acting. Being not familiar with the Fables series lead me to wonder which fairy tale would be introduced next, and it was always cool to see this game's dark twist on a classic character. In contrast to what seemed like a budgetary and game engine constraint in The Walking Dead, the comic book art style really suits TWAU. I especially liked the purple, black, magenta and yellow neon color palettes that were used during the nighttime scenes in Fabletown.

Mechanically, TWAU plays very similarly to The Walking Dead or Heavy Rain. Most of the game is spent watching a scene play out and then making dialogue choices with the occasional quick time events mixed in. The dialogue choices are where TWAU excels. Making difficult decisions in a short amount of time was the thrilling part of the game. The quick time events were... not. I get that they're included to provide tension during the action sequences in the game, but I didn't like that messing up too many QTEs just put you in a game over fail state. You then have to replay the exact same sequence over again. I much preferred the Heavy Rain implementation of QTEs where messing up a button prompt didn't give you a game over, but instead had a negative effect impact on what your character was doing in the story. That's way more intense to me because I feel more resigned to accept the result of my QTE fest and not just simply repeat it over until I get it right. 

Summary:

Overall, I found The Wolf Among Us to be another excellent interactive story game if you're into this sort of thing. And if you've never tried this kind of game before TWAU is a great place to start. I really enjoyed the characters, setting and themes in the game. Like Heavy Rain before it, the story occasionally stumbles and some of it feels like filler, but overall it's written pretty well. I would love to play a "season 2" of this game similar to what Telltale has done with The Walking Dead. Check out The Wolf Among Us if you want to take a dive into a gritty world of darkly twisted fairy tales

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda - 2011 - PC/PS3/X360

Watching season 4 of Game of Thrones got me in the mood for a little high fantasy. Normally that kind of setting is not my thing, but I think Game of Thrones has gotten me to appreciate it more, so I went back and replayed Skyrim. I played it initially when it came out in 2011 and got too distracted by exploring and all of the crazy sidequests and never finished the main storyline. This time around, I stayed focused on the main quest long enough to finish the game and realized that Skyrim actually isn't that long of a game if you can manage not to get distracted. That's the key though. Managing not to get distracted. The game world is so vast, immersive, beautiful and interesting... and at the same time so buggy, repetitive and in some cases downright broken. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game. For as many things as I can think of that I love about this game, I can think of just as many that I absolutely hate. It's a very Jekyll and Hyde game to me.

First off, the things I hate about this game... Really Bethesda? You had a huge budget to make a massive sprawling universe like Skyrim, but could only afford 3 voice actors? And then you had them repeat the exact same lines over and over again every single time I walk just a little too close to them? It really breaks immersion when I hear the "Some may call this junk..." line by the same voice actor for the billionth time. And stop dropping loot for me to carry if I can only carry like three things. The carry weight restriction is really annoying, especially when this game loves to constantly unload buckets of treasure in front of you after each enemy you slay. I know Skyrim is notoriously buggy, but just two hours in to my playthrough, I encountered an enemy NPC who was literally invincible. I had to give up on one questline because I couldn't kill him. I nearly gave up on my playthrough as well. How has stuff like this still not been patched three years later? But honestly I think I could forgive all those issues if it weren't for this next thing, so listen up Skyrim developers: You CAN NOT repeat the SAME EXACT PUZZLE multiple times throughout your game. The dragon claw puzzle thing only works once, Bethesda. The tenth time I see that puzzle copy/pasted, it comes across as lazy, game-padding filler. It's poor design, it breaks immersion, and it's definitely not clever. That goes for the stupid rotating stone animal tablet things too. And also the combat in this game is kind of "meh". Yeah.

Now on to the good stuff. This game is gorgeous. I'm not an "Ooo look at the awesome graphics" guy either. Even three years later, Skrim still looks graphically impressive, especially with the outdoor scenery. It really does help with immersion and I felt more engaged with in the impressive visuals than I do with most games. I mentioned this before, but it's quite impressive how big of a world Skyrim is. The vast world and scenery is a joy to explore and it seems like there's so many varied and interesting things to do and see. It makes you want to explore every corner of every cave, talk to every NPC and complete every quest just to make sure you don't miss anything cool. While the game systems and AI don't always work the way they should, Skyrim still does a lot of technically impressive things with the game engine. Skyrim does open world sandbox exploration as well or better than any other game I've played.

Summary:
Skyrim is definitely a game whose reach exceeds its grasp in a few places. The exploration is done well, but the puzzles, combat and glitches are black marks on an otherwise excellent open world adventure game. I have a bit of a love/hate thing going on with Skyrim, but there are probably more reasons to play this game than not to. I'd say check it out if you think you might like Skyrim. Just be wary of its lack of polish in certain areas.

Nidhogg

2014 - Messhof - PC

Nidhogg is what would happen if you took a fencing game, a tug-of-war game, and Towerfall and blended them all together. It's got the positioning and strategy of fencing, the back and forth momentum swings of tug-of-war, and the frenzied pace of Towerfall. Just like Ken Griffey Jr., it's a great game to check out if you and a friend want a quick laugh and to yell obscenities at each other while playing a fun game.

The basic goal of Nidhogg is to get from one end of the screen to the other. There are always two players, yellow and orange. The yellow player wants to move to the right, and the orange player wants to move to the left. But in order to progress to the left or right, your player has to have control of the camera. The game will always begin in a neutral position. The camera is initially in a fixed position and camera control is rewarded to the first player who gets a kill. You can kill an opponent by stabbing them with your sword, throwing your sword at them, snapping their neck while they're knocked down, or by pushing your opponent into a stage hazard. As soon as you get control of the camera, you'll want to frantically run to the left or right, depending on which color player you are. But your opponent will be constantly respawning in your path to try and kill you, take control of the camera and push back in the opposite direction. Once you reach the end of the stage, you win, and are rewarded by being eaten by the giant flying worm known as the Nidhogg. Yeah.

The pace of the game is very fast, and matches will usually last under a minute or two. Even though battles with your opponent happen very quickly, there's a little bit of rock-paper-scissors strategy with each encounter. You can approach traditionally with your sword, go in high for a divekick, or go in low and try to sweep the leg and snap the neck. There are also three fencing elevations you can hold your sword: low medium and high. Holding your sword low will protect against leg sweeps, but leave you open to divekicks and sword throws. Holding your sword high will protect against sword throws, but leave you open to leg sweeps. If you get disarmed or throw your sword, you will be able to run faster, but you will have fewer options. You can only attack with divekicks or leg sweeps, so often the best option is to just try to jump over your opponent. You can try to strategically analyze each of these options and try to predict what your opponent will do, but everything happens so quickly that you barely have time to think before one of you is already dead. You never really get a sense of negative punishment though, the quick respawning and fast pace of the game will only allow you to shout one quick profane phrase at your opponent before you're right back in the game to try again.

The art style and music perfectly complement the gameplay of Nidhogg. There are four playable stages and each have frenetic and constantly changing background artwork. The artwork really serves to highlight the frantic and urgent pace of the gameplay. Same with the soundtrack. Most of the songs in the soundtrack have an eerie synthesized sound accompanied by an unpredictable and wild drum track. It really is the gameplay expressed through music. Each time a character dies, they explode into puddle of orange or yellow paint which flies all over the level at the point at which a character was killed. If you really get a deadlock where each player keeps pushing back and forth at the same position, you get a crazy looking orange and yellow bloodbath. It's pretty cool looking. The pixelated animations of the character models are great too. Some of the death animations are especially funny and they're accompanied by great over-exaggerated death screams. Great example of simple but awesome design in the audio/visuals

Nidhogg is an excellent example of a great game that will probably only ever get made in the indie space. The elevator pitch for this game is way too insane to be taken seriously by an executive and the scope of the game is too small for a large company to bother spending resources developing it. I'm really happy that there's a huge boom of really interesting and creative ideas coming from all of these amazing indie games like Nidhogg right now.

Summary:
Nidhogg is a weird, fast and crazy good time if you and a friend are looking for a game to play. There's even a bunch of crazy bonus setting like low gravity mode or hyper-speed mode you can toggle in the settings if you get tired of the basic game. The scope of Nidhogg is small, but the gameplay is good and the replay value is high. I'd recommend checking it out.

Minecraft

Mojang - 2011 - PC/X360/XboxOne/PS3/PS4/Mobile/Vita

(On my Top 10 Favorite Games list)

Wooo 50 reviews! Wooo!! When selecting which games I'll write about each week, I give priority to the more obscure games that people may not have heard of. I think it's important to shine a spotlight on the smaller indie titles that may have slipped through the cracks. Games like To the Moon, The Swapper and The Stanley Parable all offer amazing unique experiences and are deserving of attention and discussion, but tend to run under the radar because they're not behind big publishers. I was thinking for my 50th review maybe I would review one of my all-time favorite video games. A game that I really love, like Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VII. But nah, people already know about those games. So I'm here this week to shine a spotlight on a game you may not have heard of. It's a little indie game I discovered called Minecraft.

If you didn't pick up on the heavy sarcasm at the end of that last paragraph and/or are otherwise oblivious to the video game world, Minecraft is hugely popular. Like HUGE. To date, it's sold nearly 50 million copies across all platforms making it one of the best selling video games of all time, according to Wikipedia. That's more than the original Super Mario Bros. A public beta of Minecraft was released in 2009 and it spread like wildfire across the internet, solely through word of mouth. It was officially released in 2011 and has now made it's creator, Markus Persson (a.ka. Notch), like 97 trillion dollars from sales and merchandise. Don't look that last number up, but it's probably true.

So what makes Minecraft so popular? First of all, it's mind blowing. The first time I played Pokemon Red/Blue? Mind blown. First time I played Ocarina of Time? Mind blown. If you've never had your mind blown by a video game, I don't really know how to quantify that for you. The first week I owned Minecraft, I played it obsessively. And when I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about playing it. It's a completely absorbing experience. The other reason I think Minecraft is so popular is that there are just so many ways you can play the game. You can play it like a survival game where you forage for resources and see how long you can stay alive. You can play it like an exploration game, just traversing the vast landscapes and seeing what you'll discover. You can play it like a traditional single player game where you upgrade your weapons and equipment and eventually get strong enough to take down the final boss. You can play it like a creative game because the game engine literally allows you to construct whatever you can dream up, as long as you have the materials. Or you can play with friends and blow each other's stuff up. And the best part is that none of these playstyles are mutually exclusive.

I was a huge fan of LEGOs as a kid. And I guess I still am as an adult. So the creative building block element of Minecraft is really appealing to me. The entire world of Minecraft is randomly and procedurally generated each time you start a new game or explore a new area. The terrain that is generated is essentially just made up of little blocks that the game engine will allow you to remove and replace however you see fit. There's quite a bit possible with just that game mechanic alone. But then you add in the fact that there are rare blocks that are generated like the gold ore block or the diamond ore block that can be used to make more complex objects or tools in the game... this really makes the exploration aspect of the game addicting and satisfying. Then there's the redstone ore. Oh man the redstone. Minecraft's redstone actually allows the player to create complex circuitry with logic gates in the game of Minecraft. People have made calculators and functioning CPUs in the game of Minecraft. That's CRAZY. I hope that helps you understand what a powerful creative tool the engine of Minecraft is. Then there's the people that have recreated famous structures or landmarks in Minecraft. There's the Minecraft Enterprise, the world of Game of Thrones in Minecraft, and Pharrell Williams' "Happy" recreated in game through the engine of Minecraft. That's just awesome.

Summary:
If you want to learn more about Minecraft, its developers, and the impact it's had on the games industry, check out this pretty cool documentary on youtube. If you somehow haven't played this game, you really should give it a try. If you know me personally and want to play on my server, give me a shout. And if you're one of those people who've stayed clear of this game because "eww the graphics are bad", I'm gonna come smack you. You're missing out on one of the most important and unique video game experiences ever created.

Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

Software Creations - 1994 - SNES

I am not a baseball fan. I played softball in high school more or less against my will for 3 or 4 years. I was terrible at it and the experience made me hate the sport of baseball. It's quite boring compared to other sports I watch or play; there's just a lot of standing around and waiting for something to happen. And watching baseball on TV is even more dull and uninteresting to me. So understand when you read this that I am not, for example, a football fan telling you how great Madden is or a soccer fan telling you amazing FIFA is. I am someone who hates baseball telling you that my favorite sports video game is actually my least favorite sport

Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (KGJPMLB) is actually the first of four baseball games to bear Griffey's name. There was another one made for the SNES and two more for the N64. I haven't bothered playing the other games in the series because I'm sure they probably added a bunch of new features and depth and realism to the game, which is not really what I look for in a sports game. The whole realism thing is exactly what turns me off in modern sports games too. I don't care if LeBron James' face has 90 billion polygons and the sweat will roll realistically down his face or whatever. I want to make LeBron James do 17 backflips, dunk the ball and shatter the glass NBA Jam style. I want to be able to piledrive players on the opposite team way after the whistle NFL Blitz style. I want fantasy in sports games, not realism. The beauty of KGJPMLB is in its simplicity and its goofiness, not depth or realism.

Ever played Divekick? The metagame of KGJPMLB is sort of similar. The buttons and controls are easy to grasp, so the difficulty and fun of the game lies not with memorizing complex sets of buttons, but more with trying to predict what your opponent will do. And like Divekick, the game is best played with another human opponent, not by yourself. One player plays the batter and the other will play the pitcher. And just as in real baseball, this is where the main interaction of the game lies. But KGJPMLB speeds up the normal slow pace of baseball by cutting out all of the downtime and waiting in the game and speeding up the action. The pitcher will be able to control the speed of his pitches, holding down for a fastball and holding up for a changeup. The pitcher can also throw curveballs, holding either left or right to make the ball veer wildly back and forth. The hitting/pitching mechanics are simple and well implemented. As a batter, you'll probably find the game difficult to play on reaction. You'll have a huge advantage if you've caught on to the pitchers patterns and can guess what speed and direction the ball is coming at. And as the pitcher, you need to keep varying the pitches to keep the batter on his toes. It's so satisfying as a pitcher when you throw two consecutive fastballs and then the batter swings way early at your changeup and curses you out.

As I mentioned before, the game is also kind of goofy. Apparently KGJPMLB had difficulty securing the rights to depict actual players from the MLB player's association. As such, Ken Griffey, Jr. is the only real MLB player to appear in the game, despite the game depicting real teams and real stadiums. This opened the door for KGJPMLB to take a little creative license with the player's names on each team. The player's names on each team in the game belong to a specific theme. For instance, the Kansas City Royals are all named after Presidents (A. Lincoln, J. Kennedy, R. Nixon etc.), the Boston Red Sox are named after characters from the show Cheers (C. Claven, N. Peterson, S. Malone etc.), and the Milwaukee Brewers are superheroes' secret identities (C. Kent, P. Parker, B. Wayne etc.). It's kind of a fun "guess the theme" mini-game each time you play a new team. KGJPMLB is animated in a sort of cartoonish way that matches perfectly matches its goofy, fun gameplay. When players overrun the ball in the outfield and slam into the backstop, they make a crashing sound and fall comically flat over backwards, which I used to love and laugh at as a kid. After striking out, the players may also break their bats in frustration, which is a nice little touch. Anyone who has played this game before also remembers batters turning to face the screen and yelling "Aww c'mon!" directly at the player after striking out in what I found out is actually a soundbyte of Jim Belushi's voice

Composed by the legendary Tim Follin, this game has a very short, but very excellent soundtrack. Also if you've never heard of Tim Follin before, you should look him up. He's probably never composed for any game that you've played or maybe even heard of, but he's an absolute legendary oldschool chiptune composer. All the while you're playing KGJPMLB, you'll be treated to this rockin' anthem, which is one of my all-time favorite tracks ever composed for any video game. Love that track. So catchy.

Summary:
If you and a friend are looking for a good, quick game to kill some time, you can do worse than KGJPMLB. It's fast, goofy and fun and will probably have the two of you shouting at each other in no time. KGJPMLB is a good example of exactly what I want in a sports game: Crazy, goofy, fast-paced action with a good sense of humor.

Home

Benjamin Rivers - 2012 - PC/Mobile

Like the similarly named Gone Home or even The Stanley Parable, Home is an experience that may challenge your definition of what a game really is. And like those other two games, I think Home is probably best played without any expectations or prior knowledge about the game or what it is. Having said that, you should probably stop reading this if you haven't played Home and think you might want to. Just know that you should play it if you like narrative focused games or unique, thought provoking experiences. Also it's really short and probably best played in one sitting, so set aside an hour or two and play Home. And Gone Home. And The Stanley Parable. If you haven't already.

Still reading eh? I'll try not to spoil too much of this game then. In Home, your character wakes up in an unfamiliar house with blood on his clothes and an injured leg. He can't remember what he was doing before or how he wound up in the house. He soon finds a dead body and makes other unsettling discoveries which prompt him to want to race home as quickly as possible to make sure his wife is okay. Along the way, you'll find clues that may offer insight as to what your character was doing before he blacked out or why he wound up in that house to begin with. You'll also need to make some decisions that will affect how the game plays out. For example, you find a live rat stuck in a mousetrap: do you free him or leave him be?

Graphically, Home is pretty simple. Standard indie game pixel art graphics. But I think the graphic style suits the game perfectly. Home and Lone Survivor are a good demonstration of how when you have a simpler graphic style, the sound and music design becomes more impactful. The player is paying more attention to what they're hearing to as opposed to what they're seeing. I don't think Home had superb sound design, but it was a good example of less is more. Most of the time, you'll just hear the player character's footsteps and maybe the occasional background noise which are adequate to create the atmosphere. But when you hear something unexpected, it can be very surprising or unsettling. I did have a few control issues with the game though. On several occasions, I accidentally skipped some text that I was still reading and the game wouldn't repeat the text or go back to it. And the game felt a bit unresponsive sometimes when playing with a controller, but these are minor complaints.

Okay, past this point is spoiler territory. The ending of this game warrants some discussion because it's what makes the game unique and interesting. But I don't think I can dance around the ending without revealing it, so if you don't want the game spoiled, stop reading.

The game does a good job of creating suspense and setting you up with mysteries like "Who killed the man in the house? What was your character doing in that house? Where is your wife? Is she alive or dead? Are you the murderer?". Depending on your actions and decisions, you'll get clues that can support theories about the answers to these questions. But the game will not directly give you any sort of concrete ending. It's left vague and up to the player's interpretation of the clues and events to draw conclusions about them. In fact, at the end Home, the game will link you to its homepage (ha ha) where you can see other player's interpretations of the game's events and share your own. I was initially kind of put off by this. I think I was expecting the kind of ending that 999 had where there's a great twist at the end, the player is given satisfying answers to all of the mysteries of the game, and all of your questions are explained and wrapped up. Nothing like that here. After being initially dissapointed, I decided to play through Home again since it's only an hour or so long. I found I enjoyed it more the second time where I could focus on the details and try to form my own viewpoints on the game's ending.

Summary:
Home certainly isn't for everyone, but I love this style of game. I love games that tell me a good story or can make me stop and think a bit about what the game was trying to communicate. I hear Benjamin Rivers is now working on what is being described as a "futuristic sci-fi psychological romance" game. Sounds completely crazy, and I'd like to play it

Chrono Trigger

Squaresoft - 1995 - SNES/PS1/DS/Mobile

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

I wonder why Japanese style role playing games aren't made much anymore. At least they're not released as frequently as they used to be. Especially when you compare what's been released in the last generation of gaming systems to what was released on the SNES or the PS1. It seems like SNES/PS1 JRPGs usually sold well, were usually well received and games like Final Fantasy VII (PS1) and Chrono Trigger (SNES) are now often referred to as some of the best games ever made. A video I watched recently suggests that JRPGs like Chrono Trigger are on the rise again. I sure hope so. By the way, you should totally watch all of PBS Game/Show's videos. Good stuff.

Referring to themselves as "the dream team", Chrono Trigger was the brainchild of Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series), Yuji Horii (creator of the Dragon Quest series) and Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragonball Z). Sakaguchi designed the battle system, so everything will feel familiar to anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game before. There's the active time battle system, potions and ethers and all that stuff. Horii wrote most of the story and scenarios with input from Toriyama. Both Horii and Toriyama were big fans of time travel fiction and wrote the game around the theme of time travel. Toriyama did a lot of the artwork for the game including the character designs and the visual styles for each time period. When I think about it, Chrono Trigger shares quite a few stylistic similarities with Dragonball Z. It's especially evident in the future and prehistoric time periods, whereas the present and middle ages feel more like they're out of Dragon Quest. So it's pretty much like playing a Dragon Quest game set in a world out of Dragonball Z with the battle system of an old school Final Fantasy.

Squaresoft also commissioned a then unknown and unproved composer, Yasunori Mitsuda to do the soundtrack for the game. Chrono Trigger has become one of my all time favorite video game soundtracks and it's some of Mitsuda's best work. Tracks like Time Circuits, Silvard, Secret of the Forest, Chrono Trigger and Frog's Theme blow my mind. Keep in mind when you listen to these they were made in 1995 on a SNES. Also keep in mind this was Mitsuda's very first soundtrack. Crazy. No one should be this good on their first try. The tracks perfectly complement the time period and scenery and art style to create mood. Exactly what a good soundtrack should do. There's even little musical motifs he repeats throughout the soundtrack, altering them slightly to fit the mood of each track. Amazing stuff. Also Robo's Theme sounds suspiciously like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you Up". Just sayin'.

The main character of Chrono Trigger is a boy named Crono. Yeah, Chrono and Crono. It gets confusing. I'm guessing in Japanese, Crono's name is written as some clever play on the word for "time" rather than just dropping the "h" from "chrono", but whatever. In the beginning of the game, Crono's scientist friend accidentally transports them 400 years into the past while testing a new invention. When trying to get back to the present, the party way overshoots their destination and winds up in the year 2300. When they arrive in the future, they find the world is in ruins. Few humans are left, there is no food and the Earth is a barren wasteland. The find out that the Earth was practically destroyed in 1999 by a giant monster called Lavos who emerged from deep in the Earth's core, where he had been resting for millions of years, slowly absorbing the Earth's energy. Yes, the Earth is destroyed in 1999. Keep in mind this game was made 20 years ago, but they probably should have picked a date farther in the future to avoid dating themselves. Most of the game's plot then deals with the party trying to find a way to defeat Lavos and spare the Earth from being destroyed in 1999. You'll need to time travel to different eras to learn how to defeat Lavos, enlisting help from a robot from the future, a cave woman from the prehistoric era, and even a talking frog from medieval times. The story's tone covers everything from adventurous & light-hearted to mysterious & thrilling and even sometimes bleak & depressing. It's well paced, and there are memorable characters and events that held my interest throughout the game

Gameplay wise, Chrono Trigger feels like a pretty standard old school Final Fantasy style RPG. You wait for your action meter to fill up, perform an action and repeat. There's really nothing too special about the battle system in Chrono Trigger, which is kind of disappointing. But even with a bland combat system, there's still fun to be had in battles though. The fights will feel challenging, but also not unfair. I never feel like I need to sit and grind in Chrono Trigger, and I do feel like that's necessity in some of the older Final Fantasy games and other older JRPGs. Which is fine if you like grinding, but I don't. If you get stuck on a boss in Chrono Trigger, you're probably not using the correct strategy. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, while others are magic weak. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, but only after using magic. Some have attack patterns you can exploit. You kind of have to experiment to find which strategies work best on which bosses. And I like having to figure out that these strategy puzzles rather than having to grind to get past bosses.

Chrono Trigger is notably one of the first RPGs to have a seamless transition between exploring and fighting. When you encounter an enemy while exploring, a menu just pops up and you start fighting, no transition or screen wipe to another battle scene or anything like that. It's also one of the first games I can think of to have multiple different endings depending on what actions you choose and which sidequests you do. There's also a good amount of optional sidequesting you can do to see more of a certain character's background story while also obtaining more powerful weapons and equipment for that character. There's even a secret party member you can unlock if you make the proper dialogue choices and do the appropriate sidequests.

Summary:
In short, Chrono Trigger is a fun and memorable adventure if you like old school JRPGs. The battle system is a bit unimaginative, but the game is carried by its well paced story, inspired art design and its incredible soundtrack. I played through its sequel Chrono Cross and... kinda didn't like it much. I'd love to see another game in the Chrono series and it seems now is a perfect time for it what with Square Enix's recent financial struggles. Another Chrono game seems like money in the bank to me. That and a FF7 HD remake.

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

Braid

Jonathan Blow - 2008 - PC/PS3/X360

Braid is my gold standard for puzzle design in video games. It introduces a simple concept - most of the puzzles in Braid revolve around time manipulation. You have control of a character and also control over of the flow of time in that character's world. It throws a few puzzles at you that require understanding of these concepts. It starts simple and then elaborates. Each stage tests your understanding of the previous stage's mechanics and also adds in a new layer of complexity. As an avid gamer, as a programmer, and especially as a fan of puzzle games, I'm usually able to learn and understand game systems very quickly. In most puzzle games, it's usually fairly easy for me to figure out where the game wants me to go, what it wants me to do and how I'm supposed to do it. There were a few puzzles in Braid where I just stared at the TV screen for minutes, just trying to comprehend the complex game systems that were being layered to create Braid's sublime puzzles. Braid's puzzles are completely mind bending, but in the best way. It feels great when a solution clicks and you finally figure out what you're supposed to do. And it boggles my mind even more to think how the developer came up with these puzzles.

Braid's levels are divided up into 5 short worlds. Each world introduces and elaborates on a new puzzle solving mechanic. For instance the first world, which is labeled world 2 for some reason, simply introduces character movement and the rewind time mechanic. You can move left and right on a 2d plane and jump just like a platformer. Then it teaches you that you can rewind time to undo your actions Prince of Persia style. This can of course be used to cheat death and undo platforming mistakes you make. You'll need to collect all of the puzzle pieces in each world to unlock final world in Braid. Puzzle pieces are always obviously placed, but difficult to obtain. They are frequently placed behind locked doors or put up high in the air and its up to the player to figure out how to obtain them, which requires a good understanding of the game's time mechanics. A heads up though - the first world is home to my least favorite puzzle in the game. Anyone who has played Braid before knows the one I'm talking about. The solution is kind of ridiculous and out of place with the rest of Braid's excellent puzzle design. You're not wrong for looking up the solution for how to get all of the first world's puzzle pieces.

The second world introduces objects that have a green glow on their outline. With these objects, their physical position and movement is completely unaffected by the flow of time. This concept can be trickier than you would think. In the third world, the flow of time is directly tied to your character's physical position. As you move forward, time advances. As you walk backward, time rewinds. This idea is then combined with the second world's mechanics to create some really mind bending puzzles. The fourth and fifth worlds are similar, both introducing new mechanics and combining them with concepts from previous worlds. The fifth world especially is home to some really excellent and difficult problems.

Where Braid falters a bit is with its story. It's presented by reading short bits of text that are found before each level. The narrative feels very abstract and artsy. There's not a clear sense of who the main character is or what he's struggling with. There's something about the main character and a princess he's in love with or used to be in love with or something, I don't know. It's so unclear and "open to interpretation". I still can't decide if the ending to this game makes any sense or not. I kind of don't think it does. It feels like the developer may have had some message or theme he wanted to communicate to the player, but Braid failed to connect with me on a narrative level.

Summary:
Overall, Braid is a good demonstration of excellent game and puzzle design. Aside from that one stupid puzzle in the first world, I've never been so impressed by creative ideas mixed with well thought out design. It's a bit short and the story is kind of nonsense, but Braid more than makes up for that with its sublime puzzles. If you like these types of problem solving games, Braid is absolutely a must play. The Witness, Jonathan Blow's next game, should be out in the coming months. It's definitely my most anticipated game of 2014 and I'm hopeful it'll be as well made as Braid. Expect a post on it later this year.

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.

Star Wars: TIE FIghter

Totally Games - 1994 - PC

(See also my Top 10 Star Wars Games)

Greatest Star Wars game ever made. Trust me, I've played nearly all of them. I've played the good ones (Jedi Knight/Dark Forces, Knights of the Old Republic), I've played the bad ones (Rebel Assault, Super Bombad Racing), and I've played the ones no one has ever heard of (The Gungan Frontier, Droidworks). TIE Fighter stands alone as the greatest Star Wars game ever made, and one of the great classic old-school PC games. 

Star Wars: TIE Fighter is a flight simulator game. Remember when that used to be a genre? Where have all of those games gone? So if you're looking to play this game, you need to fight a USB joystick. Remember when those used to be a thing? Ahh the 90s... But seriously, get yourself a fight stick. This game DOES NOT play well with a mouse or keyboard. I haven't tried using a controller, but for the optimal TIE Fighter pilot experience, you're probably going to want a joystick.

So problem #1 is finding a USB joystick in the year 2014. Problem #2 is getting this game to run on a modern PC. I've done it before, it's a pain in the butt, but it's possible. Steam or GOG can we PLEASE get a re-release of this game with compatibility settings for modern machines? Please? Anyway, problem #3 is that this game was made in 1994 for DOS. So, you know, it kind of looks like it was made for DOS in 1994. Here's a tip though if you're trying to get this game to work: look for the remastered collectors edition. The model resolutions and polygon counts are a bit higher. It still looks like garbage but, you know, slightly higher resolution garbage. Or if you know me personally, ask and I'll let you borrow my CD that has all the compatibility files with it. But if you can get past those three problems, you're in for an amazing game.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter is a sort-of sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing, which was released a year earlier in 1993. I say "sort-of" sequel because it's essentially the same game, but you play as the Empire instead of the Rebellion, which is way, way cooler. Star Wars fans know what I'm talking about. There's also a few game engine upgrades, mechanical tweaks and graphical enhancements in TIE Fighter which make it slightly more polished than its predecessor. You'll start as a lowly trainee pilot, given the Imperial standard TIE Fighter at the beginning of the first campaign. The first levels start you off doing routine cargo inspections and escort missions while teaching you the controls for the ship, which are surprisingly complex. Nearly every button on the keyboard is mapped to one ship function or another. As you progress through the campaigns, you gain access to additional ships, progressing from TIE Fighter, to TIE Interceptor, to TIE Bomber to eventually experimental prototype craft like the TIE Advanced. The mission types vary as well, from cover missions to bombing raids, to starfighter dogfights, even full on epic assaults as in the movies.

While piloting your craft, you'll usually need to pay attention to several systems at once. You need to watch the recharge rate of your lasers/ions. If there's not enough energy in the cannon bays, you won't be able to fire. Increasing the recharge rate of your cannons draws power from other systems on the craft, like shields or engines. You'll also need to watch the energy level of the shields. If there's not enough energy in the shields, you're defenseless. But increasing the recharge rate of the shields similarly draws power from other systems like engines and cannons. So there's a little power balance subgame you'll be constantly playing throughout the mission which usually gets pretty frantic while your trying to keep one enemy ship in your sights while two or three others are on your tail. Some of the power balance is situational as well. For instance, cannons are not as important when attacking a stationary defense platform with no starfighter support, so cannon power can be redirected to engines or to boost shields. And shields are not as important as the speed to keep up and maneuver with faster targets, like the Rebel A-Wing. Here, shield power should be redirected to engines. The loadout of your craft can be customized as well. Equip the fast, ship seeking concussion missiles when expecting heavy starfighter resistance. Bring slow, but heavy damage dealing proton torpedoes when on a bombing run. Like any good game, there's a good bit of strategy mixed in with the skill required to succeed. 

The game does the movies such great justice. Seemingly every measure was taken to try to deliver the experience of piloting a starfighter just like in the movies. The little details like what systems and weapons and speeds each of the Star Wars craft should have are perfectly replicated here in the game. Concessions are not made. For instance, TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors and TIE Bombers have no hyperdrives. They need to return back to the star destroyer or space platform from which they launched at the end of the mission. They also have no shielding systems, so they can be destroyed in two or three shots. Just like the movies. It's the little details that give this game so much credit with me and probably with other Star Wars fans as well. The game is even voice acted, and acted surprisingly well considering it was 1994. Most of the missions take place between The Battle of Hoth and The Battle of Endor, but for the super hardcore Star Wars fans, there's a whole set of missions that has you serving for Grand Admiral Thrawn, from Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire books. There's lots of really awesome Star Wars references and homages like that throughout the game.

Summary:

KOTOR and Jedi Knight/Dark Forces come close, but this is definitely the best Star Wars game ever made. Don't believe me? Check this game out. It's fun, fast, requires a good mix of skill and strategy, and is very true to the movies. It's a shame that it's so old and requires a good bit of effort to get the game to run on a modern machine. It would be nice to get a re-release, or dare I ask... a re-make? It would be great to see this game rendered on modern hardware and co-op online play would be amazing. Please someone make this happen... Disney??