#Balatro deck-building game | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

geniusphilester · 1 month ago

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i'm a bit of a balatro nerd, so here's some notes on dan's screencap in his insta story

if you haven't played before, balatro is poker in its most core mechanics, with single-player roguelike (so you lose a lot and build from playing a lot) deck building (what it sounds like, you build your deck) mechanics to make poker Bigger. you can do some weird and wild things with it, but at its base, you're playing flushes and straights and pairs and trying to score chips.

if you want to see it in action, markiplier has a good video that seems like it'll be first in a series.

in balatro, you get a base level of hands per round depending on your deck/add-ons like vouchers or jokers. for checkered deck, which dan is playing, it's 4 hands/3 discards, so you have four hands to try to get enough chips to get to the next round. there are three rounds per ante, and the regular game ends at ante 8. you can also skip rounds to get stuff.

which is the long version of saying: dan has gotten to endless mode, which means he's beat the regular part of the game and is shooting for a ludicrously high score. he has to get 47 billion chips to win this round and get to the next one. for comparison, round 1 in ante 1 on white stake difficulty (which is the one dan's playing in) needs 300 chips to advance.

also for comparison: i have hundreds of hours on this game and i haven't cracked the 100 million chips achievement on steam

he's doing a flush build (which makes sense for checkered deck; it only has hearts and spades, unlike the normal four suits) and his flush is leveled to 24, which is really good/necessary to get this late in the game. he has a lot of money, he used all his discards for the round, and he has a bunch of face cards with modifications on them. it's good strategy just looking at this much, basically

and then all the jokers he has up top make this REALLY impressive. in order from left to right

gluttonous joker: played clubs get +3 multiplier. odd one for checkered deck (no clubs to start with) but a) maybe he added some and b) even if he didn't, it's a negative card, so it's not taking up room that any other joker could use. (for this set of circumstances, base slots for jokers would be five.)

sock and buskin: retrigger all played face cards, which means all the cards dan is playing in this hand will score a second time. two of his face cards have red seals, which means they'd play a third time, one of those red seals is a glass card that'll give him a higher multiplier...i could keep going, but doing a face-card flush build is a good way to score big.

photograph: first played face card gives x2 multiplier when scored. again, another great joker for a face-card build.

blueprint: copies the joker to the right. GREAT card if you have good jokers. it also has holographic, which means it add a +10 multiplier as well.

triboulet: highest tier of joker (legendary) where kings and queens give x2 multiplier when played. but imagine it twice, since he has blueprint as well.

the tribe: x2 multiplier if hand contains a flush. and he's obviously doing a flush build.

to add to all of this, his order is really good because the cards play left to right. times multipliers stack on each other, and since chips get exponential, you need that to really get anywhere.

tl;dr - while some of this is luck (the store doesn't always sell jokers this good at the right time), dan is good at balatro.

#probably better than i am! or more careful anyway #dan and phil #phan #my ramblings

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pickles4nickles · 1 month ago

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Last year, I wanted to do some kind of jank, made in Powerpoint VGAs-type stream, but… that requires me to put a Powerpoint together and a speech for each thing… and I’d wanna make a cute little suit for my PNGtuber and I’d need to find the TIME…

And that was too much pressure for me to get everything together.

So instead, I did a blog post rundown of the games that were released in 2024 that I either played or experienced through a stream that I liked or have something to say about it. The fact that any video game is released is kind of a miracle in and of itself and I think that deserves an award, even if it’s not “The Most” or “The Best” of something!

So without further ado, here’s my version of the 2024 Video Game Awards:

The Worst Use of the Name “Mililani” Award | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

LaD: Infinite Wealth was the latest release in the Yakuza series, where ex-yakuza man Ichiban Kasuga goes to Hawai’i to find his mom and shenanigans ensue. The man who is supposed to be Legally Dead and Not Alive known as The Dragon of Dojima, Kiryu Kazuma is also there. He’s having a mortality crisis. It’s fine. If you’ve never played or experienced a Yakuza game, the vibe is essentially big crime J-drama with interludes of silly side stories in-between. Some of these side stories include games that involve taming and getting into cockfights with middle-aged weirdo men and running a vacation resort with cameos from characters of the Japanese equivalent of Sesame Street.

I actually wrote a really, really long review about this game back in the Spring, so I’ll keep this section as short as I can. LaD: IW is a game that attacked my soul as I am a Hawai’i born and raised Gamer™. For the most part, I did enjoy the 100+ hours I put into the game and I did like the battle system and side games, but I have some gripes about the story and I do kinda cross my arms at the way the game portrayed my hometown. That being said I think Infinite Wealth is… ffffine and I’d recommend it if you like the Yakuza series or big JRPGs, just… be wary of the intercultural perceptions.

The Productivity Killer Award | Balatro

Balatro is a roguelike deck building game that revolves around making the highest scoring Poker hands, while using various Joker and other cartomancy-kinda cards to manipulate your score, but also editing your deck by modifying or adding to the traditional 52 that you’d use in regular Poker.

Balatro’s just… good! It’s really easy to pick up even if you don’t know how to play real Poker (like me), but there’s also an insane level of mastery to be had with it. There’s just something kinda fun about breaking the rules of a long-established card game that feels great.

The Tiniest Terry Award | Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is a game by the Wuppo devs where you’re a little blue guy who drives his car around the town of Spranklewater, collecting Turbo Junk to upgrade his car to launch it into space. You also have a pipe. To assert dominance :)

TTTT has this really specific dry and absurdist flavor of humor that I really, really like. And on top of that it’s just a really fun game to run around in and play. Massive overworld maps that you find in bigger budget games can get overwhelming, but this game has just the right amount of places to go and poke around in.

The Stupidest Game I’ve Played This Year /pos Award | Thank Goodness You’re Here!

Thank Goodness You’re Here is a game where you’re a little man in a delightful 2D, hand-drawn British town and you just kinda slap things and help people with their problems. Sometimes there is a dick joke. Sometimes there is just straight up A Dick. Because British humor.

I don’t have too much, like, deep and meaningful insight about this one… because it’s really not that type of game. I really like the art style of this game, the whole thing is pretty much just one, big interactive sketch comedy. It’s a game that’s very unapologetic about its culture by just forcing you to sit with how grimy it can be at times, and it’s great!

The Devotion Burger Award | Great God Grove

Great God Grove is a game from the Smile for Me devs about a world in which every thirty or so years, a giant rift in the sky opens up that acts as a portal between the mortal plane and the realm of the gods. An elected human can enter the rift and ascend to godhood, but if left open too long, the rift will suck up and destroy the world. The gods have always joined together to close the rift, but this time around, The Grove is in chaos. Due to some nasty letters sent out by the next-god-to-be, King, it doesn’t seem like the gods will come together in time to stop the apocalypse, so it looks like it’s your job to straighten things out. With your trusty tool, the Megapon, you can suck up the words people say and shoot them at other people to help people communicate and solve puzzles.

So you’ve all been seeing me draw fanart of this game. This game got into my HEAD. LimboLane’s character designs and writing are always so unique and quirky and they’re not afraid to put their feelings and emotions into their art (I have been learning recently that that is very hard to do). I was initially interested in this game because of its style, went in as blind as possible, and I did not expect this game to fall into my lap when I really needed it most because it touched upon some subjects that I’ve been kinda struggling with recently. This and Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip would probably be my Game of the Year picks if I was making that a concrete award for this.

The Gay Fish Award | WEBFISHING

WEBFISHING is a multiplayer lobby (but you can play it solo!) game where you make a little animal guy (cat or dog) and you fish and hang out with your friends. As you fish, you earn money that can be exchanged for cosmetics.

WEBFISHING is a really, really simple game and that’s, like, not a bad thing or to undermine the devs or anything at all. Most multiplayer games have a very concrete goal in mind where players usually have to focus on the main goal to participate, and a lot of us just don’t have the time or the energy to be actively and continuously present for something like that anymore. The nature of WEBFISHING is just hanging out with your pals, popping in and out as it suits you. And we need more games like that.

The Why Have You Done This Award | UFO 50 - Mooncat

UFO 50 is a pack of fifty retro-style games from the Spelunky devs and friends that emulates a fictional video game company’s legacy through the years. Mooncat is one of those games where you play as… what- what the hell is that- An orange (red?) pickle-shaped creature with Grinch feet and unknown motivations.

The directional buttons move the character left and face buttons will move the character right. Pressing a directional button and a face button at the same time will make the character jump and doing so again while in mid-air will make them do a ground pound.

Hey, so, I dunno what mad lad in specific came up with this game, but this is simultaneously one of the worst and best things I have ever played and I think this game should get spotlighted for that emotion alone.

The “Close Enough, Welcome Back Pokemon XD” Award | Beastieball

Beastieball is basically what if Pokemon was also Haikyuu- this is a game that’s Pokemon double battles but also a volleyball game at the same time. As you recruit new critters to your team, they’ll learn new plays, maybe metamorphose into new forms, and make bonds with their teammates.

At the time I initially started writing this, I hadn't finished the whole game- I’m near the end, though, at this game’s version of The Elite Four. The game is also still in early access with a lot of Beasties having unfinished visual assets. Despite all that, BEASTIEBALL IS SOLID. I might write up a longer review of it once I’m done with the game, but as someone whose favorite Pokemon game is Pokemon XD and we haven’t had a solid PvE experience in that franchise in YEARS, Beastieball definitely scratches that itch.

The Cardboard Crack Award | Pokemon TCG Pocket

Pokemon TCG Pocket is Pokemon’s new trading card game app where you collect cards and play a simplified version of the long-running card game.

I’m putting this here because for being a free-to-play live service kinda game, it’s been… pretty good all things considered? At least for now? Yeah, there’s some decks that aren’t FTP friendly and the RNG will have your head in your hands sometimes. I dunno, as someone who fell hard from playing Pokemon VGC where I got overwhelmed with the amount of plays I had to retain, this was a nice change of pace. I’ve been having fun talking about the different kinda decks that have been going around with friends, sharing the cards we find, and I get to experience the serotonin of opening a card pack without having to spend real world money so... good! While there’s a nonzero chance that the game will fall to ruin a la Pokemon Go, I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve had with the game at the moment.

The “Games I Watched but Didn’t Play” Honorable Mentions

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom

“Shmovement”- type platformer where you’re a little car with an acceleration button. Has a really great soundtrack! Not-so-subtly dunks on the muskrat man. I don’t have a lot to say about this game because, again, I watched it and didn’t play it and a lot of what makes this game neat is the platforming of it all. It’s on my to-play list, though! So maybe one day.

Crow Country

Survival horror game where you uncover the secrets of the eponymous amusement park, Crow Country. Has an unsettling vibe, goopy monsters, but doesn’t really have any jumpscares, if that helps anyone. I also don’t have a lot to say about this, not just because a lot of the experience comes from having the controller in my hands, but… horror’s not really a genre I go to very often. But I guess if a scaredy baby like me wasn’t put off by the early Playstation-style graphics and could sit through it, that’s a good sign?

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop

An auto shop repair roguelike where you consult in-game manuals on how to repair different modules under time pressure. Has a lot of swearing for Vibe Reasons. From what I’ve seen, this game can be FRANTIC, so if you’re looking for a chill game, this might not exactly be for you, but there are two modes- one with smaller jobs, but more time pressure, and another with less time pressure, but bigger jobs that you need to do almost perfectly. I’ve been burnt out on roguelikes, but I might actually consider picking this one up, as the test of skill isn’t necessarily reaction time or muscle memory like your traditional roguelike, but gaining knowledge to fix modules quickly without consulting the manual. And I think that’s neat! I don’t think we’ve had a game like that just yet. That being said, the game has been buggy at times, but the devs have been patching it up regularly, so if you’re interested in picking it up, be aware of that! And waiting a little bit before grabbing it might be a solid move.

Egg Squeeze

If Thank Goodness You're Here! was the stupidest game I've played this year, this is the stupidest game I've watched this year.

I refuse to tell you anything about this game.

Persona 3 Reload

It’s the same Persona 3 we all know from the early 2000s with a LOT of quality of life changes and fully voiced social links! That being said, it is still Persona 3, so your mileage may vary and please note the literal trigger warnings.

I… was not able to finish watching a playthrough of it because the end of the game does get kinda heavy and I haven’t been in the right headspace for it (I do not handle death and mortality very well), but in my opinion, of the more modern, easily accessible Persona games (Pour one out for 1 and 2), I think P3 sticks to its thesis and theming the best.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

A game from the Persona team where it’s the same kinda day-to-day hang out with people to strengthen your bonds, fight RPG dungeon monsters kind of deal, except instead of a Japanese high school, a high fantasy setting.

I liked watching this game- there’s a lot of twists that made me metaphorically (heh) get up from my chair and go “NO FUCKING WAY” and I do like a lot of the characters and their social links. However, this still is the Persona team and, no, they still do not know how to write young adult women. In terms of overall story, Metaphor asks the question, “In times of fear and anxiety, can the general public be trusted to choose a trustworthy leader?” While the game’s plot and themes swing hard in the beginning, the game’s ending kinda pulls its punches.

Despite all that, from what I’ve seen, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements in this game compared to past Persona games - social links ALWAYS level up for each event, the game will very clearly tell you whether an action will progress time or not, the battle system is very polished, and a lot of people seem to like the Archetype system which allows your party members, not just the protagonist, to change battle classes.

Also, shout-out to some of this game’s enemy designs, as some of them are inspired by Hieronymus Bosch paintings. I don’t think a boss battle has ever filled me with the rawest emotion of “okay what the hell am I looking at” as much as this game.

Astro Bot

In the past few years, Team Asobi, a first-party developer for Sony, has been making what are basically tech demos for the Playstation, featuring their little cutie robot player character, Astro Bot. This year, they released a full-on collectathon platformer! A green Minion-ass lookin’ alien breaks apart your spaceship and scatters your robot buddies to the winds, and it’s your job to save them.

I’m just gonna sound like a broken record at this point because, yeah, this game won the VGAs and so many people have sung its praises, but I’m genuinely glad this won GOTY. Even though it’s a very “Sony wants you to remember how good they are/used to be” kind of game that pricks you with a needle and pumps 50ccs of nostalgia into you, it’s still a very solid game without it. To me, the visuals are the best part, with bright, colorful worlds that have so, so much polish into them and you can tell the team had fun making it. I’m glad this game won the GOTY because I want this industry to realize that games don’t need to be gritty and realistic to have value, they just need to be made with heart.

And Two Games I Played This Year that were 2023 Releases

In Stars and Time

Dude, you’re still on Tumblr, you probably heard of this one.

In Stars and Time is a black and white RPG Maker kinda RPG where you play as Siffrin, who is So Very Okay And Not Having A Rough Time At All and stuck in a time loop. The battles operate under a literal rock-paper-scissors weaknesses system with a ATB (Active Time Battle) meter and a Persona-like All-Out Attack style system, which builds as you use the same types of attacks in succession.

It has The Character (Siffrin) with The Character Design. It has the object head character. It has maybe the most casual conversations about being trans and being ace that I've ever seen in any video game so far. It has the narrative that will rip your heart out and possibly inspire you to consider therapy (not as a bad thing). It has so much!!

I have a lot of feelings on In Stars and Time as this was maybe the most cathartic game I’ve played in a while that put into words a lot of feelings I haven’t quite been able to name. That being said, I don’t have too much to say other than, like, it’s good? While a lot of games have the ludonarrative dissonance problem, this game achieves ludonarrative harmony. Although the cast has been traveling with the protagonist prior to the start of the game, Siffrin being emotionally distant from them means there’s some stuff they don’t know about their friends, so you get to learn what’s going on with them along with Siffrin. As you go through loop after loop after loop, you’ll maybe get a little frustrated and the game realizes that and reflects that narratively! A lot of RPGs also have trouble nailing the ending or, like, either the gameplay is good and the story falls short or the other way around, but… ISAT’s pretty much nails everything!

If I had played this in 2023 (and Hi-fi RUSH didn’t exist), it might’ve been my GOTY.

Chants of Sennaar

A point-and-click-ish deductive reasoning game where you use cultural and societal context clues to translate language!

I think this is a game that’s best to go in knowing as little as possible, like, if the premise sounds interesting at all to you, go and pick it up. If you’re on the fence about it because puzzle games can be difficult, the game has a note-taking journal system that’ll help you confirm translations and show any notes you’ve taken on-screen as you’re puzzling stuff out, so you don’t have to worry about getting overwhelmed. I think that’s all I can say about it without spoiling anything, so go grab it if it piques your interest at all.

#pickle art #picklotl #I'm not. Tagging every single game in this.#Because this ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be #but yeah if you wanna give it a read

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vidityavoleti · 1 year ago

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I'm so incredibly balatro-pilled rn it's a problem

I'm saying nonsense like "if you get Death early with the mystic deck you can easily get a full house build going quick" I love games so much

#balatro #roguelikes are my passion and joy

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chongoblog · 11 months ago

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i recently realized i love deck building games but i haven't played very many of them so i'm trying to decide what to get into next. since you're always posting about all these super fun looking deck builders, what are your favorites?

Right now I’d say my favorites are Balatro, Slay the Spire (ol reliable), Monster Train, and Dicey Dungeons (even if that one isn’t specifically a DECK, its still very similar)

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mothprincess · 2 months ago

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i won all of the decks that i’ve unlocked on white stake, won red stake, use my beloved ghost or yellow decks, and all was going well with balatro. now i can’t stop losing? now that i understand the mechanics better? i was doing better before 😭

i choose my build as i find strong jokers, lean toward face card builds, probably use flush builds too much, love queen/hearts jokers because those are my favorite types of cards lol...

may need to stop skipping so many rounds for good prizes. i played every round in the past because i didn’t get the mechanics and playing most of them made me more successful

ngl, card games are becoming sexier than chess but both are sexy. i need to play poker or smth

#thoughts #balatro

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hiwelcometothemonstersancturary · 10 months ago

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since prototype is not much of a gamer and from the 1930s. what video game does he try out?... for me (and know this game didn't exist yet during in this AU timeline but) Balatro. it's a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder all about creating powerful synergies and winning big. imagine the prototype being like "i used to play cards with my old friends, so be easy for me" and now it's been 20 hours since he pick up the game. Angel been calling for him/found him on his 30s run to 100% the game... help this old man.

You're SO correct actually. Any type of game that uses cards or deck-building is an instant "yes" for Proto! He saw Kickin and Bubba playing Yu-Gi-Oh, and after being taught he just murders all of his adversaries.

I think Prototype prefers watching rather than playing, but he avoids most shooters (except Splatoon, he loves the "kid squid game" (he knows what it's called he just thinks his nickname is better)). He tried playing Portal once but hated GLaDOS so much he quit. If we don't count anything that has cards, however, his favorites would be Pokemon and Harvest Moon (gets into Stardew Valley later), finding them to be very relaxing. Plays Minecraft if the toys annoy him for long enough, but he's always busy protecting them from the monsters.

Prototype is prohibited from touching Uno because he will destroy everyone else.

#poppy playtime #poppy worldwide #save everyone au #experiment 1006 #the prototype

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hardcore-gaming-101 · 2 months ago

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Balatro

In the world of indie and middle market gaming today, there are no shortage of games that combine deck building and roguelite elements. It’s become as tiring as a horror game where you find random objects in a small map while trying not to trigger a jump scare, or anything based around survival and crafting mechanics. To stand out from the crowd, you need to do something special, and that’s what the anonymous developer “Localthunk” has done. This was managed simply by removing the usual dressings and focusing on as simplistic a core idea as you possibly can – building poker hands. It gets absolutely absurd from there.

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iced-lemon-draw · 1 month ago

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2024 Steam Winter Sale Recommendations

So the steam winter sale just happened so I've decided to draw the cute steam sale girl. There was an attempt of the drawing during the autumn sale but I was busy back then and did not make it, but I've decide to salvage the drawing of her for this winter sale post. Along with the drawing I would also like to take this opportunity to recommend some steam games that I've played this year that you'll likely never heard of. While we get some great releases like Balatro and all, there are many other smaller indie games that did not get a lot of traction that I think these games do deserve some of your attention. Do note that this list consists of games that I've played in 2024, not necessarily released this in 2024 So in no particular order, here are my recommendations:

Witching Stone:

An elegant mix between match 3 puzzle and a roguelike. In combat, you cast spells based on the gem sequence you've input. Each spell requires their own input so each turn you will be strategizing ahead which gems you should include in your sequence to cast the spell you want. While it is not strictly a deck builder, there is enough customization and variety in the spell mechanic to allow you to make unique devastating builds.

2. Minishoot Adventures:

Imagine Zelda 1 but replace links sword combat with bullet hell combat, that's this game. There are not many non roguelike/ shmup bullet hell games and honestly there should be more of it. If you like bullet hell then definitely give this game a try. While the boss fights can be challenging overall I'd say this game is quite friendly for beginners as well (trust me, I am not very good at bullet hells and I mainly play touhou on easy mode). But do keep in mind that this game is inspired by Zelda 1 on the NES in particular, which means this game does not tell you where to go so it's up to you to explore and figure things out yourself. (There is also hardly any text in the game like in Hyper Light Drifter)

3. WitchHand

A card based colony management game similar to Stacklands, but it does a lot of unique things with the witch theme. In this game you can do all things from management games like building buildings, command familiars to fight for you, craft resources and more, but all in a easy to grasp card format where everything is a tangible card. Two things I really like about this game, one is that there is no card limit like in stacklands which really kills the pacing for me, secondly, this game has automation mechanics where you will eventually build supply chains to automate a lot of the complex crafting for you. Overall playing this is a very addicting and satisfying experience, just keep in mind that you will be managing, a lot, and I mean a lot of cards.

4. Rusted Moss

A grappling hook focused metroidvania with bullet hell combat. While most games have grappling hooks, this games stands out where the hook is actually elastic like rubber, in which you can stretch and contract it to fling yourself wherever you need. While it takes some time to get used to, it is indeed pretty fun to master this movement mechanics (schmovement as they called it). The level designs does make use of this as well, for example in most metroidvanias if you see a ledge you can't reach it usually means you'll need another upgrade to reach there later on, but in this game it's likely just skill issue. it also has a good number of optional challenge ares to test your mastery on the movement mechanics. Combine this and some well crafted gun play, you get some fun and engaging gameplay throughout your adventure. While I'd say this game is pretty challenging in terms of the platforming skill it demands, there are accessibility options that let you tweak the game's challenge to whatever fit your needs. Also this game has some interesting lore that is based on Fairy Tales with some pretty interesting character interactions if that is your thing. (Also this game has another content update coming soon.)

5. Transiruby

An cute little metroidvania where you play as a cute robot girl. While this game is pretty simple and arcady in terms of it's collectathon gameplay (you just collect chips in areas which are the equivalent of Mario coins) I do find it quite charming, and sometimes that's all you need for a fun experience. Also one of the upgrades allows your cute robot girl transform into a motorcycle if that interests you.

6. Touhou Endless Dream

It's your standard bullet hell top down shooter roguelike with a touhou theme. While the game can be janky and lackluster at times, but if you can look past that the gameplay is thrilling with enemies all over the place shooting unique bullet patterns which you'll need to observe and dodge carefully. I honestly enjoyed my playtime with the game and would love to see the devs expand on this as this game has a lot of potential. Do check this game out if you are looking for some fun and intense bullet hell combat out of the box.

7. Touhou lensed Night Sky

A Touhou fan game that is a roguelike. Unlike games like touhou 18 and 18.5 this game goes all in with it's roguelike aspect with randomly generated enemy encounters and game changing Bind of Issac style item systems on top your familiar shmup gameplay from Touhou. I really like this game because it does many unique things that you usually don't see from a standard Touhou shmup and there is a lot of variety from the item effect. There is a good blend of stat based upgrade and upgrades that heavily alters the game mechanics, great for making unique builds which makes this game very replayable. (It also has a challenge based difficulty system similar to Slay the Spire's accession system if that is your thing). I would recommend you to at least give this game's demo a shot although do keep in mind that this is still an early access game with quite a number of bugs to be expected. (The devs are working hard squashing the bugs so do report them if you found any.) But if you can look past that, this is a game worth trying for yourself.

8. Archvale

Another bullet hell adventure game but unlike Minishoot Adventures this one takes inspiration from Terraria with it's many unique weapons for you to decide on your playstyle. What I really like this game is it has a lot of polish into making sure the combat feels very satisfying. Similar to Vlambeer's games like Nuclear Throne, every moment of gameplay is a treat for the senses. If your like nuclear throne or what you've seen from gameplay footages then you should get this game.

9. Maiden and Spell

A bullet hell PvP fighting game. Imagine Touhou 9 or 19 but both players are in a single arena shooting directly at each other, that's this game. This is Mino's previous game and while it's not a replayable roguelike like Rabbit and Steel, I still think this game is worth a look at if you like bullet hell combat. While it is a fighting game, it also has a pretty fun single player campaign to play with. This game also supports online play with online netcode and from my experience the online gameplay is pretty solid with minimal network issues encountered. Do give this game a shot and like rabbit and steel, recommend this to a friend as well so they can play with you. And one more thing, like Rabbit and Steel, the soundtrack of this game is also remarkable as well so do give it a listen.

Alright that's all I got. Thanks for listening to ramble about niche games. I really like small indie games made by small teams that most of them had little to no recognition, usually these games are overshadowed by super successful titles like Balatro and Hades and I do wish that they get the recognition they deserve. While I can't exactly convince you to get these games from the winter sale, I do hope you find all these titles interesting. Do let me know if you had more indie game recommendations as well, I always like to learn more about indie hidden gems. Anyways I am done here and I hope you had a good year. See ya again in a future post.

#touhou project #indie games #steam winter sale #steam sale #archvale #maiden and spell #rusted moss #touhou endless dream #touhou lensed night sky #transiruby #witchhand #witching stone #minishoot adventures

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gddmgttsu · 4 months ago

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Good evening!

I bought Balatro for my phone two days ago.

I have not stopped playing Balatro.

I got my first clear with the egg and buccaneer jokers then the rest of my slots were built on deleting hearts and spades from my deck and multiplying my multiplier.

This game man… this damn game.

Honestly, it brings be back to a much simpler time where I was happily playing TF2 and hearing from a friend that if you buy Poker Night at the Inventory gave you free stuff.

I didn’t know how to play poker but I was determined to get those items. Max’s handgun specifically was one of my favorites.

What suprised me was how simple poker is with it’s rules for building the hands. The difficulty of the game was trying to pick up on the tells of your oponents. I didn’t really care for that so I lost a lot hahaha.

When I get a full house in Balatro I hear the guy from Poker Night saing “Full House!” in my head every time.

Another fond memory I have of poker was interrupting Mahjong night at my relative’s house in the states by asking to play poker and betting on candy. They taught me how to play Mahjong and I like it too but it dosen’t quite scratch the itch that poker does when building your hands.

I played a bit of Mahjong in FFXIV and even Yakuza but Riichi Mahjong is a bit of a climb hahaha.

Anyway, I just wanted to share something positive for once. I got sick from a co-worker recently but I wasn’t sick enough to not go to work which is sad but that’s just how it is hahaha.

See you next time in my next videogame yap session.

(I just remembered I was supposed to write about my thoughts on Dawntrail but it slipped my mind… probably because Terry released for Street Fighter)

#ggsgarbage #balatro #poker night at the inventory #damn I should reinstall it just for fun

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thatneilj · 1 month ago

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Game of the Year 2024

Hey everyone! 2024 sure was a year, huh? Alright let’s be honest, not a great one. At least not outside of video games. The fucking world is a giant mess. Anyway, the couple of small highlights in my life this year were:

Finally reading books regularly again

Finally got back into Netrunner

Finally finished Jump King

Onward to the Game of the Year list!

Honorables

Shelved by Genre

For the last couple years I’ve been putting some non-video game stuff into the honorable and this year we’re tossing in a podcast. Shelved by Genre is a bit of a book club diving into a bunch of fantasy and sci-fi stories. While they weren’t exactly the reason I managed to pick a bunch of books up again this year, the hosts have been really fun to listen to talk about novels I’ve read – and some I haven’t – throughout this last year.

Shadow of the Erdtree

I know I’m that weirdo Fromsoft fan who didn’t like Elden Ring as much as the rest of the world seemed to. The thing is, my issues were never about the mechanical improvements to the game, it was more the structure and design that seemed, frankly, bad at actually giving meaningful direction in the open world. Now years later jumping into the DLC was great because it basically corrected on almost all the issues of the base game I had and ended up being one of my favorite experiences of the whole year. Unfortunately you do still need to play most of the base game to access it and I feel weird about putting DLC onto my list in an official capacity.

Nine Sols

I feel like I’ve only gotten maybe 20% through Nine Sols and it’s already something that would be competing for my game of the year. Some of that might be recency bias, but the general pacing, movement, and exploration gives me a lot of the feelings I last got from Hollow Knight. While that perpetually delayed sequel continues to tease us all, this game is doing for me the same thing the protagonist seems to get from that life giving pipe-weed or whatever he is smoking.

5. UFO 50

UFO 50 is a weird game to put onto this list since it is more like a launcher for 50 other small games. I love the commitment to the collection being the works of a fictional development team making games spanning all the way back to the early 80. However this does lead to, especially with some of the earlier titles, a recreation of some of the more annoying parts of returning to older games. Luckily with so many games when I don’t find one particularly enjoyable I can just move on to the next one!

Even now I haven’t touched all the games in the collection, but I have really enjoyed a handful already that is well worth the price of admission. Some of my favorites I have engaged with include; Camouflage – a navigational puzzle game, House Party – a deck building game, and Vainger – a mixture of Metroid and VVVVVV. I know there is a meta layer to engage with which I just haven’t been driven to do (shocking given my love for games like Tunic), but this ends up on my list more as a value proposition. Do I love every game in this collection? No. Is there at least 2-3 games I think any person would have fun with? Yes.

4. Balatro

When you find run based games they tend to fall into two main flavors – Games like Hades where the choices you make will change how your skills work to make you feel powerful, and games like Balatro that dare you break them and make you feel good as hell while you do it. The basic structure of Balatro is so simple, play hands poker hands to get points and get enough points in a limited number of hands to move to the next stage. The big twist here being that you can start changing the cards in your deck, start making specific hands much more powerful, and of course modify every hand with your jokers.

Maybe you’ll strip out all your face cards or end up with only 2 suits rather than 4. Maybe you’ll make that one Queen worth a ton of extra points, but only if you keep her in your hand instead of playing her. Or maybe you’ll find some jokers that make a lowly Two-of-a-Kind feel like a better hand than a Royal Flush. There are not many feelings this year more enjoyable than playing a hand that’s point value catches fire to indicate you beat the threshold in a single hand.

3. Zenless Zone Zero

I am honestly pretty torn on my feelings about ZZZ and yet I’m putting it all the way up here at Number 3. The first few nights I played it right on release I found the initial cast of characters you get to interact with generally more annoying than fun, I found the strange TV Array mission navigation overly simplistic, and I started getting overwhelmed with how many different items existed to level up all the different pieces of any given character. But I had said over a year ago than then ZZZ came out I would give my first Hoyoverse game a full month for me to try and see why these games seem to be so popular. Luckily the basic action game combat felt good and it had great style.

As I unlocked more of the systems they started doing more with the TV Array stuff putting some puzzles into those missions that acted like breaks from the usual action gameplay and I started to appreciate them. I unlocked the systems for daily energy that lets you farm some of the leveling materials more easily. And maybe most importantly, I got to story content that had characters I found more interesting to engage with and to use. It all started to click.

Here we are some 6 months after release and there is no doubt in my mind that ZZZ is my most played game of the whole year. I am still logging in every day, enjoying the new story chapters, and rolling for more characters. That there is the big elephant in the room though. This game IS a free-to-play gatcha game and they sure do have some predatory hooks in there to try and squeeze money out of you. I will admit to putting a few bucks into the game for the battle passes, but I’m not precious about making sure to get every single character so I haven’t really run into any walls that make me feel like I NEED to spend more money. But all those hooks are there, in my face, and do make me pretty uncomfortable suggesting anyone try to get into it.

2. Dragon’s Dogma 2

I am kind of shocked at how much I enjoyed Dragon’s Dogma 2. We all know that I tend to fall off open world games even when I think they are generally good (looking at you Witcher 3). While I finally gave the original Dragon’s Dogma a playthrough at the start of the year, it was an old enough game that the open world still felt very constrained and it was the class systems and streaming that really got me through it. I did have a good enough time that I thought the sequel would be worth a shot and I am so glad I played it.

The game rewarded me for paying attention to the characters giving me quests, letting me know I should find a guard disguise before visiting the jail to investigate one of the prisoners. It made every little trip across the world feel like its own little adventure where I might be ambushed by a griffon or suddenly see a ghostly carriage. Though perhaps most importantly, the expanded pawn system granting them abilities beyond their classes helped me become much more attached to pawns beyond just my own. Running around successfully gave me a feeling closer to the tabletop experience of adventuring with my friends than any other RPG has gotten. And that is to say nothing of the excellent variance and fun I had playing all the different classes providing a great action experience on top of everything else.

1. Animal Well

A puzzle game with some extra layers has made it into my top 5 many times in the past. We did discover some of my limits for that kind of game at the start of this year with Void Stranger unfortunately, and coming off that there was a small part of me worried my patience for that kind of game had depleted. Animal Well was a breath of fresh air with its moody visuals, 2d platforming traversal, and Metroid-style ability gated map design. What really made it stand out was how well it managed to communicate small goals without directing you through text.

It is hard not to notice that the ghosts you meet so early in the game always seem to be in rooms with candles in them. And once you find your first match to light a candle you discover that the ghost doesn’t come back. Even more importantly though, a candle also lights up in that weird wall full on candles near the very start of the game! Once you add the interesting ways in which the game gives you so many alternate ways to use so many of the items and suddenly the game feels like you can break your way into places only to discover they thought of it too and reward you for it! Though perhaps just with another puzzle piece.

While I don’t think the bigger second ending puzzle hits the same kind of highs that the instruction manual from Tunic does, it is still an extremely satisfying achievement. Knowing how much more there is after that and the ways that the game was built not just to encourage community puzzle solving but actually require it for many of puzzles beyond that ending is impressive. But more than anything I’m just happy to see I still like the sense of discovery in this kind of puzzle game.

#game of the year #2024 #GOTY

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