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lrcpwjno · 17 days ago

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Video Game Post 2024

another year of a habit many are calling Troubling and Obsessive

(in which I attempt to speak coherently and meaningfully of several games I liked quite a bit through 2024; these are not necessarily games that released in 2024, but rather games I played in 2024. It's also not a comprehensive list of stuff I liked.)

Gravity Circuit

gravity circuit is one of many attempts to reclaim the long abandoned megaman throne and I honestly really enjoyed it, to the point that I beat it in a single day in almost a single sitting. It just would not let me go. At any rate to immediately undermine the first sentence; the game takes more from the mega man zero games, with a stronger focus on melee combat and upgrades then Kill Boss Get Power, though the game does have that analogue in the form of paint jobs that give you special moves the bosses do, often activated through a particular button combo or context. That said, only one paint job at a time, and frankly the combat even at base with generic upgrades was good enough that I don't recall swapping off of it at all.

Attacks are both basic punches along with directional special attacks in the vein of super smash brothers. Movement feels incredible, the grapple mechanic somehow never felt clunky, and the game, like many notable platformers of the recent years has a good feeling of momentum to it. Attacks are both basic punches along with directional special attacks in the vein of super smash brothers, and those paint job specials I mentioned earlier run the gambit from Air Dash to You Turn Into A Sphere And Can Pass Through Solid Terrain. Upgrades can give you parries, double jumps, extra energy, etc etc etc.

A lot of variety to be had, and it is no doubt a fun game to optimize though I personally never did it. I'm sure there's an insane speedrun out there somewhere.

Dungeons of Blood and Dream

There's a sort've now long standing genre of game that you find mostly on itch.io that is totally uncompromising and doesn't really care if the player enjoys playing it, or sometimes even looking at it. I do enjoy those games, but I find it hard to reccomend them for obvious reasons. Dungeons of Blood and Dream feels like one of those games with just enough Random Gamer accessibility considerations to bridge the gap between an Art Game and a Normal(-ish? Maybe?) Video Game.

Dungeons of Blood and Dream is difficult and uncompromising but nothing in that game is an incredible mystery. Melee attacks are very short ranged and you often have to have a plan to get away from the enemy's melee attack after you've gotten in and swiped at someone, the spell system is complex and obfuscated, (made slightly easier by the in game journal system) and involves leeching your own health, making any spell a gamble, and rings can both harm and hurt you, and have a variety of effects based on what finger you equip them on. If all of this sounds esoteric you'd be right, and that's what differentiates Dungeons from other Generic Medieval Slashy Fighty games, something sorely needed in the genre. The game will punish you, and if you didn't understand why, it's your job to figure out why and resolve it.

The plot is... involved but short version you are trapped inside a wizard's brain and to escape it you need to find out the wizard's true name. You can do that by dreaming within the mind prison, and fighting creatures. Area bosses give you letters which spell the name of the wizard. After that... I dunno, still working on it. There's an outside to the prison though! Whether there's something to that or it's just a trigger for the ending is another question. The plot has more dressing then this and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested but that's the gist.

Fantastic simple action game with a lot of mechanical depth in the equipment and spell system. Very much modeled after traditional roguelikes, successfully if you ask me.

UFO 50

I miiight not need to tell you about this, and honestly it almost breaks the popularity ceiling I put on these things, I feel. UFO 50 is a collection of 50 NES style games by the guy behind Spelunky, Mossmouth (AKA Derek Yu). I could rattle on for hours about every individual game, but it's honestly impressive how many of these games are legitimately extremely good on their own merits. The genres run the gambit from early NES classics such as Those Games Where You Run Right Constantly and Have To Dodge Stuff, and Those Games Where You're On A Field And You Have To Interact With Little Guys Somehow Figure It Out, and more conventional action platformers, RPGs, weird little puzzle games, action RPGs, Disc Based RPGs, RPGs where you are a group of lizards that swim into the deep ocean with absolutely no backing audio, wild west RPGs, Shmups, one game that honestly feels more like an excuse to wedge a roguelike deckbuilder in there, metroidvanias where you play as a cute little submarine guy, train heist games, an idle game/Legend of Zelda hybrid, racing games, fighting games, a game that can only be described as La-Mulana Esque, and of course, golf. A lot of golf. And a golf RPG. Of course.

Some of these individual games have already made a name for themselves as being exceptional within the genre; a lot of people love Mini and Max, and a lot of people love Mooncat. They're both truly unique experiences individually, and I would say they are worth the asking price alone, not including the remaining 49 games. There's a lot of variety, there's experimentation, there's conventional, and everything in between. I rarely think a game is worth recommending to everyone, and t be honest I don't know if UFO 50 quiiiiite makes it, but it's damn close.

All this praise and I don't even mention the game tracking your progression on every individual game, along with the metagame elements that tells the tale of the titular UFOsoft game development company, starting from humble beginnings and slowly growing into a household name, along with the circumstances leading to their untimely collapse. That's a bit more hidden but I'll say this; the console command is in the menu for a reason.

If you're not into the ARG shit though, UFO 50 is still an incredible game collection. In no way do you have to follow the breadcrumb trail, the game hides very little from you, and the content available is fantastic. If you're even a little bit into video games, you owe yourself to check out UFO 50. I don't really do game of the year anymore, but UFO50 tempts me.

Corn Kidz 64

Corn Kidz 64 is a unique N64 styled 3D platformer with a twinge of collectathon design. Visual design is absolutely stellar, perfectly imitating the visual design of N64 games, the controls are immensely responsive, as someone that usually struggles with 3D platformers I never had any sort of issue with the controls and I can't think of a single issue I had with the camera.

The game consists of a surprisingly large tutorial level, a single large exploratory world (again, in the vein of N64 collectathons, less pits, more weird little nooks and crannies), and two challenge tower platforming worlds. I had a great time with every one of them.

It's not really a flashy game, so it's hard to recommend the game more then I have without just like, talking about what happens in the game, but rest assured the basics I've talked about here are immaculate, and the world the game takes place in is engaging. If you felt Yooka Laylee fell short of the standard set by the N64, give this a shot.

Also the playable characters are goats, which like, I have no idea how I've never seen a goat human hybrid in a platformer before. Insane.

Voices of the Void

What started as what I can only assume was an attempt to bully a swedish streamer about his alien phobia from several countries away has quickly developed into one of my favorite "casual simulator" games to date. Voices of the Void puts you in the shoes of Dr. Kel, a doctor working at the ASO, Alpen Signal Observatorium. You head out into the dunkeltaler forest, a SETI site in a wooded valley that also seems to be surrounded by a military blockade, complete with sniper towers, for some reason.

When you arrive the complex is absolutely trashed, the computer systems barely work, and the place is inexplicably filled with mannequins. From the complex you process signals from space, complete with audio, images, and spectrograph readings, and send them back to the ASO HQ to be analyzed further. You also maintain the on site equipment which involves server repair (including the servers in the sattelite dishes, IE Not In Your Bunker), and hash code retrieval. This gets you points, which you can use to buy all sorts of things; food, amenities, cleaning supplies, to clean up the awful mess at the base, equipment upgrades, and distractions from your day to day such as metal detectors. Also on sale are cameras, viewable from your main console, allowing you to keep an eye on areas you deem troublesome or curious. Or just bunker up even harder.

I could continue to play dumb but as the game progresses in story mode, various entities begin to appear. Between the fixed story mode events and the random events, the game manages to do an excellent job of keeping you on your toes, and inspiring paranoia, all while rarely actually springing danger on you. I've described it as "Hearing a weird noise while you're in the shower, at home, alone, horror" and I'd say that's about right. The sheer volume of unique events and the lack of restrictions on their appearence creates a sort've infinite paranoia generation engine, which happens to go quite well with the mundane day to day maintenance of the site and yourself. The game manages to simultaneously be a light horror game and an almost stardew valley esque life sim game, and it mixes the elements fantastically. I unfortunately struggle to convey my appreciation for this game, so I'll say this; do not normally replay story mode games. I have played VotV twice, all the way through story mode, and I've only known about it for six months. If that.

Lightning Round

in which I rattle off some very quick reviews about games that I appreciated but are less substantial in some way. Usually roguelites, I'll be honest.

WitchHand

A little "deck civilization" game, where you have a deck of cards that combine and interact in such a way as to create a sort've complex system of interactions that lead you to needing to sort the board in such a way that you can perform these interactions efficiently and keep track of them in a rapidly advancing world. A Cultist Simulator-Like game, if you will. You play as a cutesy witch and you're required to fufill tasks appointed to you by the council. As these tasks progress you unlock more stuff and the plot progresses. I... forget how it ends. I was really more there for the card juggling, honestly. Also similar to stacklands if you're familiar. I personally think it plays much much better then it, however, which is why it made this list, and stacklands didn't.

Garlic

Precision platformer with an excellent sense of humor. Your little garlic headed guy is remarkably expressive and the various events that occur on your way up the tower are endlessly entertaining. Very charming little game, goofy, and fun. Also as precision platformers go; not too hard. Until the finale.

Plot involves said garlic headed guy trying to court the lady at the top of the tower. One of the events o nthe way up to build your Cool Points is a first person view of your guy walking down the road and kicking cans. Mostly here for the platforming, but the comedy is very good too.

Bore Blasters

You're a little dwarf in a flying machine and you blast the terrain around you with a gun to unearth the ores. Your goal is to get to the bottom of the zone, unlocking an upgrade, while fending off enemies which all seem to be abel to phase through solid matter with no issues. Sort've a vampire survivors-adjacent game, leveling up, getting upgrades, etc. The mining aspect creates a lot of friction to the standard vampire survivors loop and I quite liked how the two systems interacted.

Has a bizzare amount of plot, and while it overstays its welcome, I did enjoy setting up really big earning runs. Once you run out of uses for money the game rapidly stops being entertaining, however.

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers

An entry in the rapidly expanding Rogulites About Card Games genre, you play blackjack, you get special cards that do various things. As is typical of this genre there's too much variety to even cover s othis is basically me saying There's A Blackjack Roguelite. I think it by and large falls below its peers but who can blame it.

Balatro

You don't need me to tell you about this. I'm not even going to link it.

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