#Katamari Damacy: Re-Roll

[leam1983]

2024 in Gaming

Helldivers 2: it's become a running joke with the polycule, and approval with Progressive opinions or talking points now gets at least one of the three of us to jokingly pull out their smartphone to "call their Democracy Officer to report a case of treasonous activity"...

Walt isn't any better, but he's unlocked a few rocket-propelled weapons and now feels better sitting behind myself and Sarah while pelting the enemies ahead with weaponized Freedom.

Balatro: Walt and I's new favourite casual game, wherein appearance of it being a cutesy little variant on Poker suites turns into virtual crack. I've woken up in the wee hours to Walt's face bathed in his phone's OLED screen. When I ask him what's wrong, he typically replies something to the tune of "I need four thousand Chips, babe."

Marvel Rivals: it does what Overwatch 2 don't. As in, it's fun. Me, Walt, Sarah and a few of the boys on an all-Rocket Raccon match? You betcha! Also, there's Jeff the Land Shark, and Jeff the Land Shark deserves the world. Nay, the universe.

Astro Bot: didn't finish it, but I loved what Team Asobi cooked up. It's the most genuine, heartfelt, cutesy and engaging piece of corporate PR and Engineering porn to ever exist. Every button pressed during an Astro Bot session twiddles Mark Cerny's fun bits remotely.

Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree: bought it because I approve of the design ethos behind this DLC's existence, never played it because I suuck at FromSoft games. I made sure to watch some related content so I could point and laugh awkwardly if friends of mine greet me with a random cry of "BAYYYYLE!"

Worshippers of Chtulhu: Anno with a Lovecraftian twist. It's very broken, still very much in Early Access, but the promise is definitely there.

Park Beyond: Meh. Got it for cheap, I guess we're still not getting a decent heirloom to Roller Coaster Tycoon, after the Micromanagement nightmare that Planet Coaster turned out to be for me.

1000xResist: basically a Yoko Taro game not written or directed by Yoko Taro, and it's one of the deeper game-based experiences I've had in a long while. Strongly recommended.

The Cabin Factory: Spot the Difference for easily-frightened streamers who haven't played Exit 8 yet. It has an interesting narrative format and is one of the more surprising implementations of Unity Engine I've seen to date. I could've sworn this was a UE5 project! Beyond that, it's nothing special, but it's priced accordingly.

Clickolding: if Cookie Clicker had an uncanny sense of atmosphere and managed to creep you out with nothing except a sparsely-animated antagonist and a rising click counter, you'd have a sense of what this feels like. It does a very effective job at making you want to be as compliant and possible.

Daemonologie: The Salem Witch Trials in game form, or Ace Attorney if Phoenix wore a Quaker hat and had a fixation on nakey women doing odd shit in the forest. Very tense and minimalist, and very, very worthwhile.

Cryptmaster: it's basically a spruced-up oldschool MUD, with 3D black-and-white graphics and four zombified D&D character archetypes you control simultaneously, by either using your Arrow keys to move the entire party at once, or typing in the words that correspond to abilities or attacks. Very, very, very British humour is on offer, along with a script-writer that managed to predict most stupidly filthy prompts you're likely to try at any given point. It's hilarious and kludgey in just the right way, especially if you remember the nineties' MindMaze on Encarta '95.

Liar's Bar: Russian Roulette for Furries with a decent voIP chat integration. It's shallow and stupid fun, and the subject matter makes people behave in increasingly crude ways as the session goes on. If you're like me, you'll swear you played a round or two against a guy who was actually stone-dead-drunk and who actually had nothing to lose...

Silent Hill 2 Remake: finally, Silent Hill's fog doesn't feel like a performance-saving measure and actually creeps me the fuck out. It makes me feel terrible and has me contemplate not playing it, but it does make sense. Kudos to Bloober Team for finally manage to ground this one heck of a weirdo title.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: take Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny, burn all copies, consign the masters to Disney's oubliette, thank Harrison Ford for his decades of diligent service and pass the fedora and bullwhip to Troy Baker, 'cause Machine Games and Bethesda have managed to find themselves yet another prime title to fuck Fascists up using fisticuffs or blunt weaponry. It's a great callback to Machine Games' own contribution to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, seeing as every single level in the game has the granular detail of their version of Prague. Slap some John Williams on, add the authentic audio samples for whip cracks and punches, lifted straight out of the movies. I haven't had as much fun raiding tombs or poking through lovingly-reconstructed real places since Nolan North last lent his voice pipes to Nathan Drake.

Imagine my surprise, when the Sistine Chapel turned out to be about the size of our condo building's parking lot! That's tiny! The more you know, I guess!

Star Wars Outlaws: this is what happens when a studio really, really, really wants to give the IP due diligence, but its decades of re-iterated design docs ruin the experience. Kay Vess isn't a galactic scoundrel; she's basically every Far Cry protagonist ever, except in third-person!

The Forever Winter: all crunch, no fun. An incredibly engaging premise, but the mistaken notion that the average gamer has several three-to-four-blocks to devote to this each and every single day. Worth at least a YouTube ride-along, to see the incredible work the Art Design team's pulled together.

Disney's Epic Mickey - Rebrushed: Warren Spector's poorly-received baby and love letter to classic animation gets its just desserts on PC. It's not super complex with only two basic mechanics based off of two buttons on a controller, but it managed to use an extremely limited toolset to great effect, even throwing in what feels like a younger relative's first potential exposure to the Immersive Sim concept of looking for unmarked routes through a level. The in-between side-scrolling levels are oozing charm, and essentially feel like some part of Spector wanted to play in the same ballpark as American McGee's Alice.

If anything, it cements the idea that non-verbal instances of Mickey Mouse should never be left in the same room as a magical implement or toolset. Ever. Verbal Mickeys can push past their childlike glee and reason accordingly, but the oldschool button-eyed and non-verbal originator is not to be trusted.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl: Have fun losing half your health because the ARMA-esque mechanics decide that grazing damage means holy shit, you almost died! Especially, have fun getting knocked flat out on your ass by mutants - over and over and over...

To be played in subtitled Ukranian out of implicit support, and to have fun with the Slavic definition of an acting range. It's like watching the second season of Squid Game, except you get the sense that their scale goes from Nonchalant to Pants-Pissingly Terrified with very little grading in-between.

And now, for Games I didn't really get into until 2024...

Valfaris and Valfaris II: Mecha Therion: side-scrollers that do their damndest to look like they stepped straight out of the pages of Heavy Metal as of the mid-eighties. Gorgeously grotesque pixel art meets with a banging soundtrack made up of certified shredders. The lead headbangs and throws the horns when he finishes a stage!

Brütal Legend: an oldie but a goodie, previously constrained to the PS3 but now quite cozy on my Steam Deck. It's got a semi-cohesive grab-bag of mechanics, sure, but it's got even more heart, along with a pre-stroke Tim Curry voicing the villain with the gooiest of all countenances. Imagine Shere Khan, but Metal as fuck.

Katamari Damacy: Re-Roll: I barely touched the original when it came out. Having managed to grab the PC port for cheap and knowing how well it plays with a Steam Deck, the Prince of All Cosmos' ball-rolling sojourn across the surface of our planet has turned into a nightly staple for me.

Baldur's Gate 3: Yes, I know, I'm late, you've all banged Astarion sixteen times by now, but I've got time for a long-form WRPG right now. I might not have this much free time once January 10th rolls around.

The Night Cage: not a vidya, but a really nerve-wracking tabletop game that's made for quite a few fun Friday nights at La Casa de Gremlin.

On My Backlog, You'll Find...

Metaphor: Re-Fantazio: I know it's beloved by all, but it feels so "so far, so ATLUS" to me, and I still haven't gotten over P4, P3 and P5's excellent PC ports. I also have Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne to go through, so I really don't know if I have it in me to tackle something in that same vein quite so soon.

Arizona Sunshine 1 & 2: I just can't be bothered to set up my Oculus Rift 2's Link Cable. I have the games, I just don't know if and when I'll play them.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster: I'm waiting until my old cheese strats fade into the back of my mind before I tackle this one. Plus, I'm torn about Frank West not being voiced by TJ Rotolo. He doesn't just... feels like he's covered wars, y'know?

Frostpunk 2: bought it to support the devs, am just not jazzed about having to sort of network my way across several simultaneous points of origin until the depressing version of a Dieselpunk sprawl covers the map.

The Yakuza series on Amazon Prime: SEGA's trying to become the Disney of gaming, but something about Kazuma Kiryu's story (or stories) have always felt distinctly and uniquely Japanese to me. As in, it requires a specific mindset and might not be for everyone. I'm waiting for a sign, basically - maybe one to pop my collar and rent a karaoke machine so I can belt out maudlin soliloquies to lost childhood innocence while smoking half a pack of cigs between every third or fourth stanza...

The Sonic Movies: yeah, sure, I'm in my forties, but Jim Carrey's going through a career renaissance by acting out Albert Einstein on crack. Yeah, sure, it's not either of my Robotniks (the Jim Cummings or Long John Baldry versions - for the memes) - but it seems like it might still be a trilogy of adaptations worth pursuing.

Plus, hey, I gotta start catching up on that Stobotnik shit, huh?

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

ナナナン塊 [The Na-Na Song] • 塊オンザロック～メインテーマ [Katamari on the Rocks] • Overture • 月と王子 [The Moon & The Prince] • フーガ#7777 [Fugue #7777] • LONELY ROLLING STAR • ステキ星のさんぽはステキ [Walking on a Star!] • 塊シンドロームmix [katamari mambo (Katamari Syndrome Re-mix)] • You Are Smart • 真っ赤なバラとジントニック [Red Rose with Gin & Tonic] • WANDA WANDA • ケ・セラ・セラ [Que Sera Sera] • 天使風味の贈り物 [Taste of an Angel] • カタマりたいの [Roll Me In] • カタマリ☆スターズ [Katamari☆Stars] • さくらいろの季節 [Cherry Blossoms] • ラブリーエンジェル [Lovely Angel] • サターダスト・ファンファーレ [Stardust Fanfare] • さいごにサンバ [The Last Samba] • 愛のカタマリ～エンディングテーマ [Ball of Love] • 塊マーチ魂 [Katamari March Damacy]

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[garden-eel-draws]

It's me again. I still exist, apparently.

I just spent the whole time I was brushing my teeth thinking about this and trying to come up with what might make me personally pick the PS2. I didn't get very far. FF12, Xenosaga, Katamari Damacy, maybe Frequency/Amplitude/Guitar Hero...and then I just kept running into a bunch of crossplatform stuff that doesn't really count. And I might actually have played zero of the exclusive platformers on the PS2 ever now that I think about it, because I never had my own PS2 and my roommate who did didn't have any of them.

Not that it would really make a difference for me, because I've never met a PlayStation controller that didn't hurt my hands to use. Maybe the newest ones are better, but the split d-pad always gave me blisters and the symmetrical analog sticks make me put my thumbs in positions that are less comfortable for me. I've been a lot happier just emulating the games and using a different controller instead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My main games on the PS2 were Ape Escape 2 and 3, the original Ratchet and Clank trilogy, and the Katamari games on there. The split D-pad was definitely garbage (I've never liked using D-pads anyway), but the parallel sticks were a lot easier for me than the Switch's offset ones! I bet my hands would be less ouchy after a session of playing Katamari Re-Roll on my Switch if I could plug a Playstation-style controller with Switch-style flat sticks into it. Maybe there's somebody out there who makes those.

For me, the console I never touched was the Xbox. We had an original-flavor one and then a 360 at my house, but after the 360 got red-ringed, I think my younger siblings kinda gave up on that console series. When I was little, the original Xbox controller kinda freaked me out! It looked like a creepily bloated Playstation controller with scrambled Game Cube buttons to me and I hated even holding it lol

I think the most painful controller I've ever used, though, was the Donkey Kong bongos for Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. *shudder*. I loved that game, and I completed it multiple times! But oh god did my hands hurt so fuckin bad for days after each play session. I swear I bruised the entire pads of them, especially along that raised section under where your fingers meet your palm. Ow ow ow.

[buddy-tm]

Drawing Game January 2023

So a few of my friends and I have been playing this game we made up a while ago where we take turns picking mostly cartoon characters, and sometimes real people and animals, and we draw the subject from memory. No reference allowed. We then share them all at the same time and have a hearty laugh at the atrocities we've conjured up. Here are the results from the most recent drawing game:

The King from Katamari Damacy Re-roll:

Shrek

Hey Arnold

Kermit the Frog

Orangutan

Danny DeVito

Erasurehead Baby

Guy Fieri

And this last one is an exception to the "no references" rules where we took a bit more time to work on our interpretations. Here is:

Catboy Tony Hawk

[acnhretreat]

stoked for the we love katamari re-roll cuz We Love is the best version of katamari it’s so much more fun than katamari damacy

[npfehr]

Recently Completed: Katamari Damacy Re-rolled (Switch)

Uh-oh! The King of All Cosmos went on a bender, and broke all the stars in space. You play as his son the Prince, tasked with rolling a ball of pure stickiness around Earth to gather great balls of things that can be turned into new stars.

It’s weird and delightful and just so, so good. Starting with coins and dice and working your way up to rolling up your first human seems like a huge accomplishment, and the game continues to scale upward from there. Almost nothing was done to the game for this remake; the resolution was bumped up, widescreen support was added, and...that’s about it!

But, the game is practically perfect as it is. Why mess with a good thing?

[ohnolara]

#30 Raging Pain

So... I used to play A LOT of video games. Although my go to is ACNH, husband also bought a copy of Katamari Damacy Re-roll. I’m not usually an angry gamer... but that game.... ooooooo.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

[satoshi-mochida]

Some thoughts on my last Gamefly rental, Katamari Damacy Reroll.

I think this is my first time playing the original Katamari Damacy; I only remember playing Beautiful Katamari, before my Xbox 360 died.

Having not played in a while, I had to get re-used to the controls, but I got back the hang of it pretty quickly, though turning can still be a pain.

I tried by best on most of the levels, but the cow and bear levels I kind of gave up doing really good on since I’m only renting this; it’s way too easy to accidently roll up something really tiny that counts towards the goal(like a bunch of milk bottles that count as cows right at the start as either a trap or an easy win). I’m sure some people can do them easily, though. ^^;  I’ve heard about the dreaded cowbear level from another game, too.

After playing the ‘Roll The Moon’ level, which had the main Katamari Damacy theme plaything the whole time, I had it stuck in my head for a while. It’s still there, actually. 

The credits song is nice to listen to, as well, and I like it’s theme of connecting people. A minor detail about the credits themselves is that, since it wasn’t updated, some of the countries you can roll up are different now than then.

I got reminded of a old, dumb joke about this game my friend and I(and probably most other players) about what the King of All Cosmos was referring to when using the Royal We. XD

While playing, I was thinking about which it weirder, this or Chulip. Both are very strange, and very Japanese, so it’s hard to say.

It was good to play one of these games again; it’s just plain fun, if frustrating to control at times. I hope some of the others get remade/remastered, too.

Next game being sent is: River City Girls.

[thecheapsteaks]

VIDEO GAMES... 2018

2018 was a thing.  It felt like it lasted 2 or 3 years.  It is honestly a bit difficult to track which media I consumed during the year. I'll start pondering a game that I feel like I played last year only for it to dawn on me that, oh, it happened this year.  It makes keeping track of this stuff a bit tricky, honestly.  Anyway, I am still going to try to do that, to get my thoughts in order and let everyone see what I had in mind. I will go over all of the important things needed to survive:  video games, music, anime, and other things.

VIDEO GAMES

Again, it's a bit tricky to remember what even came the hell out this year game wise. I am not going to rank things, because I suck at ranking things and also comparing a lot of the things I played this year is like comparing apples and termites.  I'm just going to make a good effort to go over some nice highlights of the year.

Bayonetta 1 and 2

Bayonetta is a game series I have been interesting in playing forever, but just haven't gotten around to due to circumstances despite it being released on multiple systems I owned.  I passed it on the PS3, couldn't afford to buy it when it was out on the WiiU, so when it came out on the Switch I had to give it a shot, and it was worth it. Admittedly, I sort of sucked at it (I take a ton of damage playing games, which isn't the best for getting high ranks) but I still enjoyed it and am glad that I played both of them (except for that one part in the first game in the angel territory where you fight those thunder and fire claw dudes who are immune to witch time, they can eat my ass).  The characters are fun, the over the top action and enemies are neat, and Bayonetta is just too damn cool.  I'm definitely interested in the third one and looking forward to seeing where the sequel goes. 

(I had forgotten this game had came out this year, it was in February, goddamn how long was this year)

Kirby Star Allies

I will admit, I am heavily biased towards Kirby to a fault.  If a Kirby game makes a reference to a past Kirby game I will gleefully clap as I notice it like a trained seal, and Kirby Star Allies, serving as a Kirby anniversary title, plays into that nostalgia hard.  Compared to the other modern 3D Kirby games (Return to Dreamland and past) I feel that the single player experience is on the weaker end, admittedly. The main campaign, while satisfying, blazes by quick, and the game does re-use boss styles a lot, which is a shame since the past few Kirby games had some very satisfying bosses.  Fortunately the extra content, including the post game modes and extra DLC support, was a marvelous way to keep the game running way after its release.  The nods and references to past games worked wonderfully for me, and it was admittedly great to see long dormant characters such as the animal buddies, Gooey, and Adeline/Ribbon return as playable characters.  The game's single player campaigns, both the initial story mode and the DLC conclusion “Heroes in Another Dimension” have very satisfying conclusions, and the challenge offered by the obligatory Arena mode is wild.  Really, I just love Kirby, and this game is a nice love letter to Kirby.  I have no idea where the game will even go after the plot line from this, but I am ready for the ride.

Octo-Expansion

Being able to play as an Octoling was definitely a long anticipated update for this game, and the way they were integrated into the game was amazing.  The initial Octo-Expansion trailer oozed almost rude amounts of style, and getting a whole new bonus single player campaign made purchasing an expansion worth it.  The additional stages were absolutely geared for challenge, and I don't think I will go back to finish the ones I didn't finish any time soon, but they had so many cool new implementations and spins on the Splatoon formula.  Splatoon on its own would make a decent game if it were just the single player campaign or multiplayer, so having both just makes for a nice, complete experience.  The whole climactic sequence, from finally completing the challenge of the subway to escaping to freedom, has that absurd escalation I just love in video games too. Also I love my stylish Octoling.

Kemono Friends Picross

Somehow I made it so long without ever playing Picross, but this finally brought me into it.  I have no idea how this combination came to be, but it finally got me into a fun puzzle system and I enjoy it. Somehow I have put in nearly as many hours on this game as I have Star Allies.  A lot of it does come from having the game paused as I idly go through puzzles while working on other projects, but having a game that does not demand a ton is pretty nice and fits with my gaming and lifestyle.  I'm looking for friends.

WarioWare Gold

WarioWare is one of my favorite video game franchises and a bit of an underdog, I feel.  The original Mega Microgames was my favorite experience on the GBA, with its unique game play mixed with a silly style.  The games that followed in the series for the DS and Wii were fun, but Made in Wario on the WiiU changed from the Microgame based high score hunting style to a collection of modes and games based on the WiiU game pad.  There were some bright ideas in there that might have done better as their own eShop titles, and the shift towards multiplayer games didn't quite fit as well with my style of gaming.  After that there was silence from the Wario Ware camp until the announcement and release of WarioWare Gold, which like Star Allies is a celebration of the series's past.  It was fun to have another Microgame experience that blended all of the weirdness and frantic gameplay that made me love the series, with a solid selection of classics built in.  It even has fully voiced cutscenes (an expansion on Smooth Moves's narration for each different style) that are oddly charming in a Saturday morning way.  It was good to have this series back, and I hope to see more unique takes on Microgames in the future.

Katamari Damacy Reroll

The original Katamari was a quirky game I bought on a whim back in the PS2 days that was sold to me on its weird look, style, and nice price point.  I enjoyed the first so much, and We <3 Katamari is one of my favorite games of all time.  Having a nicely touched up port on the Switch was welcome.  Somehow, despite having not played the original or its sequel in decades, I took to it like I had just played it yesterday, rolling up incredible Katamaris like a pro.  The original does have some warts in its gameplay that the sequels ironed out marvelously, and the dual stick controls do bother my thumbs at times, but it's still so satisfying to play and it's great that this game has a new chance.  Please go by this one, it's so enjoyable, but also because I want them to port We <3 Katamari so badly so you can all play that and see Katamari perfection.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

Smash Bros games seem to live on hype.  I will admit I never expected to see a Smash Bros game so early in the Switch.  It doesn't even feel that long since Smash 4 came out!  So having a trailer in the beginning of the year and a release in the same year was a bit astounding.  There was lots of drama and intrigue with leaks, character additions, and whatnot, and even if I am sad for some that didn't make it (pour one out for Ashley and Shadow, please) having every character available, along with some fun new additions, is definitely nice.  The spirits mode is a nice twist on the event mode, and the rebuffs to classic are nice.  Really, the best part is just being able to play Smash again with my pals, try out all of the characters, and just enjoy it with everyone.  I look forward to the DLC, and that we get Banjo and Crash to create some sort of bizarre realization of every ones mid-2000s dream game.  It was a fun ride leading up to it, and I look forward to playing it more with pals in the new year.

STUFF I STILL NEED TO FINISH

There are some games I got really recently that I still need to finish as gifts from the Steam Sale and whatnot.  I have right near the end of December received Celeste, Donut Country, and I finally got Cuphead thanks to the kindness of friends.  These will be some nice games to get me started on the new year even if one of them is from last year. At some point I may go back to Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, although admittedly the requirements for the true ending of the former are a bit of a turn off and I am having a bit of difficulty getting into the game play, controls, and progression style of the latter, but who knows!  I am also intrigued and interested in Yokai Watch 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, in the near future, and hope to see some nice news on Animal Crossing. Lastly, may Platinum Games heed my calls and give the world a Wario World sequel where Wario wrestles God or something in the pursuit of money.  Amen.

Also I still need to finish Persona 5.  Really at this point I’m just doing it for Futaba. She’s the best.

Next up, I will write about my favorite music from the year, as well as cartoons and film, which admittedly I have not gotten as much into this year!

[brutalgamer]

Trailer: Katamari Damacy REROLL arrives on PS4 and Xbox One

The King and Prince have returned to savagely roll up everything in their path and re-forge the cosmos. Katamari Damacy REROLL is out now. Restored splendor The King of All Cosmos has knocked out all the stars in the sky after a particularly rambunctious night of fun. Realizing...

[ladystylestores]

You should play Namco’s lost arcade-action classic, Mr. Driller DrillLand

Enlarge / Right about now sounds good for a blast of 2002’s best arcade-puzzle gaming.

Bandai Namco

In recent years, Japanese game makers have tried to revive the 16- and 32-bit era’s beloved niche of arcade-puzzle series, but these nostalgia cash-ins have mostly failed. Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter came back to life on smartphones as a free-to-play gacha mess. Sega’s Chu Chu Rocket returned with too many complications as an Apple Arcade exclusive (and, crucially, zero multiplayer). And Hudson’s Super Bomberman sputtered onto the Switch’s 2017 launch lineup as a mess, though it eventually received some face-saving patches.

As a result, I shudder whenever I see a cult-classic, puzzle-arcade series return on modern, download-only storefronts. The genre that used to thrive on cartridges and CD-ROMs has become ripe for microtransactions and slot-machine mechanics. Which is why I’m taking the unusual step of reviewing such a launch going right.

Mr. Driller DrillLand, out today on Windows PCs and Nintendo Switch, is one of the rarest games from Namco’s early-’00s period, which was otherwise marked by the blistering 3D likes of Ridge Racer and Tekken. The cartoony, 2D game, which launched exclusively in Japan in 2002 for the GameCube, was arguably a swan song for the studio’s legacy as an ’80s arcade juggernaut. Thankfully, today’s updated, translated version leaves well enough alone: its pure gameplay experience returns with 1080p-friendly touches.

$30 may be a bit steep for this classic game, but it’s the best Mr. Driller game ever made, and it’s a remarkable love letter to the Namco of old.

Clearing a path to a flow state

The “basic” mode mostly resembles the classic gameplay of the 1999 original. Every mode in this game has an amusement park theme, and this one is clearly the “It’s A Small World” segment.

Dig further, and you’ll find other countries. Here, Puchi makes his way through France.

Different characters have different strengths and weaknesses. This robot character is a bit slower, but he gets double the health.

That’s the star of Dig-Dug, if you’re wondering.

This Indiana Jones-like mode is the most interesting, thanks to its treasure-routing challenge.

This mode, an homage to Namco’s Tower of Druaga, has some cool adventure-mode tweaks.

Collect potions, then use their powers to trap and capture ghosts.

The least interesting mode in the package merely makes you contend with randomized bonuses.

Plus, quite frankly, I’m happy to have this enormously cheery and weird game right now.

Like other puzzle games from its era, DrillLand comes with a silly and largely unnecessary plot, and it includes the same Japanese voice acting found in the 2002 version. Mr. Driller and his friends have been invited to visit a fictional amusement park, and its every attraction twists or modifies the core Mr. Driller gameplay formula with some thematic gimmick. (His friends, if you’re wondering, include his dad—as in, the guy who starred in Dig Dug—and a cheery, talking dog named Puchi.)

One of these attractions is essentially a port of other Mr. Driller games, because it simply asks players to dig, dig, dig. Your primary object is to dig through colorful blocks from the top of the screen as deeply as possible. That may seem simple, but if you dig carelessly, you may leave hanging fragments that fall and crush you, and your digging path is complicated by “solid” blocks and a requirement to pick up oxygen tank refills. This is a high-score chase mode, since you’ll get more points for clearing various depth amounts quickly and efficiently.

Since the first Mr. Driller game launched in 1999, no other puzzle game has copied its formula. Unlike color-matching and piece-fitting classics, Mr. Driller emphasizes the flow state of constant, efficient movement and digging, which benefits from spatial awareness of shapes and colors all around you. Matching other colored blocks factors into your success, and your downward digging can put color-matching combos into motion, so there’s a two-headed thrust to your Mr. Driller DrillLand progress. That this gameplay still feels special and unique makes this 2002 re-release a worthy puzzling option for anyone who may have missed the series before.

But even if you find that puzzle system a bit wanting, the four other modes add clever twists to its formula. The best mode removes the oxygen-filling requirement and converts the whole game to an Indiana Jones spoof, where you’re forced to create digging paths that lead to treasure pickups while avoiding traps and—oh, I love these—giant rolling stones that will smash through your digging path and threaten you, like the chase scene from Raiders. Another mode pays homage to Namco’s classic Tower of Druaga series, as it forces Mr. Driller to take specific paths through a dungeon, collect treasure and keys, and fight bosses. And a haunted-house mode turns you into a ghostbuster of sorts, as it makes you freeze and capture ghosts within the blocks that you’d otherwise dig through.

That’s the Puchi attitude

Need a cheery, silly game? DrillLand has you covered.

You’ll switch from mode to mode by wandering across this map interface.

As far as a silly, family-friendly script is concerned, DrillLand delivers. Expect plenty of groaners and cheese.

Boy, I’ll say.

The points you accrue in every level can be spent on things like cards.

These appear to exist primarily to dole out trivia.

Want to buy some utterly worthless collectibles? Go ahead.

Between each of these challenges, a fully voiced cut scene will play out with the Driller crew’s personalities clashing in giddy, Saturday morning fashion, and while you can mash buttons to skip these, I’d suggest not. The whole package radiates with DayGlo-bright designs—all handsomely scaled to modern screen resolutions and a 16:9 ratio—and part of the inflated $30 cost is that you’re sometimes expected to sit back and marvel at how weird and elaborate the game’s story gets.

This should particularly delight anyone who still fondly recalls Katamari Damacy, which debuted on PlayStation 2 two years after DrillLand‘s launch. You can see the seeds of Katamari‘s wacky plot and King Of All Cosmos character planted by the Driller family’s saccharine-sweet trials. Meanwhile, DrillLand‘s perky J-Pop soundtrack, presented here at full fidelity, isn’t identical to Katamari‘s classic tunes by any stretch, but the up-tempo charm and vocal-melody components are almost identical.

The weirdness doesn’t end there. At any time, you can load a lengthy, music-driven parade sequence, where various Driller-series characters stomp across your screen, almost-but-not-quite in time with the music. There’s no way to fail this mode; it’s not technically “gameplay,” and you can only modify it by pressing a joystick to change the marchers’ tempo. Why is this in the game? I have no idea. But now I kinda wish every video game had an optional parade sequence as an amusing distraction. (Just think of how TLOU2‘s post-apocalyptic Seattle might look with its mutated monsters stomping to the music while holding batons.)

Big-screen treatment for two-player modes.

Smaller screens for three- and four-player modes.

On PC, it’s easy to set up everyone’s preferred controllers.

To finish the package, the game includes a pair of four-player battle modes. One is a parallel race through standard Mr. Driller gameplay, where each player races to dig through identical content, and the other is a ho-hum battle mode where players dig through the same, shared screen in search of a randomly placed treasure. The latter feels unfair as a versus game, while the former is pretty meager with its battling and “garbage” mechanics. Still, as family-friendly four-player modes, they’re better than nothing (but, sadly, don’t work online).

Nitpicks, not dealbreakers

The biggest drawback to the whole package is a $30 pricetag, which is high for a 2002 re-release. As far as “new” content, you’re getting a newly translated script (no new English voice acting), an admittedly smooth upscaling of the original 2D assets to 1080p resolution, and a new “casual” difficulty level—which, I should be blunt, is far from casual. Mr. Driller DrillLand can be pretty unforgiving to new players due to how quickly its falling block fragments fall and harm your character, and entire runs will get wiped out due to a severely limited pool of lives. (Casual mode only adds a single extra life to each mode, which, I have to say, doesn’t suddenly make the package newbie-friendly.)

Worse, the game��s digital download doesn’t include any form of instruction manual, so you’ll go through trial-and-error to answer serious questions about the game. Which levels should I play first? Do shiny blocks, which disappear after a certain amount of time, mean anything in a level? Why don’t each individual mode’s “level 2” and “level 3” sections unlock? Is there a point to spending in-game coins on a shelf of collectibles? And how do all of the items in the item shop work? The last question is crucial, because beginners will rely on that item shop, not the “casual” mode toggle, to survive their earliest sessions. Some in-game guidance to that effect would have been appreciated.

Thus, it’s not a perfect collection. Still, I’ll take a re-release that’s doggedly old-school over the microtransaction alternative. DrillLand is exactly the kind of unique, satisfying, and cutesy puzzle-action game I want right now, and its brand-new appearance on the portable Nintendo Switch is particularly welcome. (And since the series’ iOS $1 version from 2009 is dead, thanks to a lack of 64-bit update, we’ll have to settle on this week’s solid port.)

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[kna-knut]

Get To Know Me Tag/Questions Tag

Rules: answer these 20 questions and then tag some tumblr folks you wanna know better! I was tagged by: @amazoniansiege

Name: CSC

Nicknames: Everyone for some reason calls me a diminutive of my real name,  in internet i call myself Kna

Zodiac sign: Pisces

Height: 174 mm

Orientation: Demi Ace

Nationality: Argentinian

Favorite Fruit?: banana,Pear,tangerine

Favorite Season?: Fall/Autumn,winter

Favorite Book?: I Love Discworld (terry pratchett) books.Also Merchant's war (frederik Pohl), blue world (jack vance) and anything from asimov, but i love lots of books!!

Favorite Flower?: my knowledge of flowers is very little...i find them pretty overall,no favorite one so far.

Favorite Scent?: Wood.the smell of different kinds of wood.i just love that smell.Saw dust.a tree branch. a polished piece of wood.a rotten log full of moss.a new furniture.Wood.

Favorite Color?: It rotates between: red/orange, purple/blue , cerulean/turquoise .soft grey is a classic.and of course:black too.

Favorite Animal?: All Cats, tiny eagles,small rodents.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Cocoa?: Tea is okay.

Average Sleep Hours?:  lately, like 9 hours.(i`m jobless so i can allow this)usually was 6 when studying,then 7 last years.Surprinsingly i did a whole two years of 4 hours and nothing bad happened.

Cat or Dog Person?: I`m partial to cats but i love all animals,even the ones i find scary.

Favorite Fictional Character?: Undyne,Lara Croft,a couple of witches of Discworld, Sam vimes.

Blog Created: i have no clue

Number of Followers: 204. Re: (I block all of the porn blogs. They do not count. Ew.) <- Same.<-Ditto.

When Did Your Blog Reach Its Peak?: That has yet to occur,if.

What Made You Decide to Get a Tumblr?: My dear Daiki friend recomended it and even if for a couple of years i avoided it (knew i was gonna like it) i always loved collecting images i like and used to print them and glue to journals,so i decided to do the collecting in tumblr instead.Economy!

Why Did You Pick Your URL?: Because  i know how little i know about life and things.

Last Movie You Watched?: Logan--->Loved it! speacially sad because  i miss papa and the person i fell for.

Last Song You Listened To?: Crypt of the Necromancer ost. and rollings star cover from katamary damacy, by Aivi y surasshu

Last Book You Read?: A radioestesy book by Gerula.well i am negleting the reading of the Fundation books,too.Currently re reading my kuroshitsuji manga collection!

Last Thing You Ate?: Lunch

If You Could Be Anywhere Right Now, Where Would You Be?: in solitude at a kickass place.Playing the ocarina while stretching.

Where Would You Travel to If You Could?: places that get my interest fired up(no current plans as i have no money)

Tagging: no one.just do it if you feel like it!

[terryblount]

And The Gamer Malaya And Gamer Matters’ Best Remake/Remaster Award Goes To…

Either the game holds up really well or the new release spruced up in a major way that made us love the same game all over again

Remakes and remasters are popular in this generation of consoles, but thankfully the quality and work gone to these supposedly re-releases are now surmountable to be a full-on new release.

Coming in to the deliberations, Spyro Reignited Trilogy has an advantage for being on the dia.log- The Gamer Matters Podcast in two occasions (here, and here). Though Shadow Of The Colossus also made a large impression. It’s a beautiful, tragic, boss rush game about climbing big colossi and killing them.

Meanwhile, Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is a great showcase of the new necromancer publisher that is THQNordic on how they revive their IPs. Lastly, Katamari Damacy Reroll sneaked in late into the party just because after all these years, the eccentric puzzler about rolling a ball around is still great.

At the end of the day, however, the panel believes on the little nudist purple dragon that is Spyro. The three-in-one remake of the Super Mario 64 equivalent for the original PlayStation still holds up as a new remake. Congratulations!

Gamer Malaya And Gamer Matters’ Best Remake/Remaster Award 2018

Winner: Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Toys For Bob, Activision)

Honorable Mentions: Shadow Of The Colossus (2018) (Bluepoint, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered (THQNordic), Katamari Damacy Reroll (Monkeycraft, Bandai Namco)

Choice quotes from the deliberations

“Spyro. I love looking at people mad like.. ‘Why you haven’t change this and this and this..'” -Daniel

“Spyro. It’s fun looking game. Colourful. Good for children. Good for old men..” -Irham

“..Spyro.” -Anan

“Now that Spyro wins it, I can say that my vote was for Shadow Of The Colossus.” -Meck, number one Spyro fan

“In the end I’m glad a Dark Souls game won an award.” -Wam

At the time of recording, our resident Spyro fan has yet to play Spyro Reignited Trilogy, but he is now working on a full review so stay tuned for that.

On that note, stay tuned as tomorrow we will be revealing the winner of the Best Game We Didn’t Play Award!

Check here for the full results of the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2018.

And The Gamer Malaya And Gamer Matters’ Best Remake/Remaster Award Goes To… published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[teachergaming-blog]

Amazing Katamari Damacy Hack, Cheats, Tips & Guide

Start to roll your katamari into a ball of galactic proportions through “Bandai Namco entertainment Europe” new game amazing Katamari Damacy where through the game you will start to help the prince in his amazing adventure where through the game you will start to collect thousands of the objects and team up with your royal cousins on a mission to restore the galaxy, the game is available for both android and IOS devices where through the game you will start to rush through different lovely levels and help the king of all the cosmos to win back the queen’s heart, and as you play you will start to save the universe from impending doom, so let’s talk about amazing Katamari Damacy tips and know how to use amazing Katamari Damacy hack and what we will get from it through playing the game.

  Complete Your Collection.

 Through playing the game you will start to collect all of the osmic items through the game and use them through your quest and as you play the game you will be able to gain different items to boost your performance like golden gizmos which helps to bring the stars back to the sky and every constellation you will get will give you extra bonus, also you can get all of the items for free through using amazing Katamari Damacy cheats and through it you will be able to gain more items and get more bonus through playing different levels and collect all of the items through your way with no need to run to them.

  Call Your Cousins.

 Through playing the game you can call your royal relatives where through them you will be able to get their help and they are ready to rumble with you and through the game play you will be able to upgrade each of them to get the full potential out of them and as you play the game you will be able to gain more power through playing the game with these upgrades and while you play you can use amazing Katamari Damacy cheats and get all of the characters upgrades and enjoy every characters power and get their help through more efficient way through the game and let them get you covered with their powers.

  Avoid all the Hazards.

 Through playing the game you have to avoid all of the treacherous hazards which will kill you or slowdown your progress in every level, and many of them are deadly like the black holes, also there is many of the animals like cats on skateboards, charging cows, parade of the zoo animals which will try to stop you, and while you play you will have to roll over all of the objects and beware of these characters that will stop you from saving the galaxy, and also you can get all of the help from your friends through using their special powers that will help you to defeat all of your characters and as you play the game you will be able to get these powers to help you finish these levels faster and get more bonus through it.

  Ensure Saving the Galaxy.

 Your quest through the game is saving the galaxy and bring back the stars and through the game you can use amazing Katamari Damacy hack which will give you unlimited power to go through the game and collect all the needed items from every level, and as you play the game while using it you will be able to get the help from your cousins and upgrade all of them quickly and for free, and through using amazing Katamari Damacy hack you will be able to get all of the packages for free and with no external purchases and enjoy the game with the full power and items through it to get more fun through it.

The First publisher is : Real Gamers

Main Post Link : https://ostatus.org/amazing-katamari-damacy-hack-cheats-tips-guide/

Topic :  Amazing Katamari Damacy Hack, Cheats, Tips & Guide

Re Shared on “WithoutWax” : http://withoutwax.tv/2017/12/18/amazing-katamari-damacy-cheats-hack-tips/

Re-Shared too on “WeAdvance” : http://weadvance.org/amazing-katamari-damacy-hack-cheats-tricks/

[retrorendum-blog]

Katamari Damacy - Review

Title: Katamari Damacy

System: PS2

Info: Namco, 2004

Story: This is a werid game. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it's just quirky and odd. The first thing you'll most likely notice when you pop this disc in is the hilariously random intro, which includes giant mushrooms, dancing pandas, and an insane amount of rainbows. To be honest, it looks like a drug hallucination. After the intro you begin the story, which entails the King of the Cosmos getting drunk and accidentally destroying all of the stars in the sky (Don't ask me how that works). After he breaks out of his drunken state, he sends you, the Prince, on your mission: Roll up objects on a ball called a katamari to sufficient size in order to replace the stars. After each level, a short movie plays telling a side story about two kids, their mom who refuses to believe the stars are gone, and their dad who is an astronaut, preparing to board a rocket. These have some funny animation and story, but the voice acting is god- awful.

Visuals/ Music: The graphics in this game are surprisingly good for an early PS2 title, and they would probably look even better if I was using the optimal video connectors and wasn't on my low-res boob tube. The cartoony art style has really aged well, and although this game is long overdue for an HD remaster on PS4, you still feel the bouncy, lighthearted feel of the game through the smooth, simple textures and quirky world. The music in this game is also great, not really one of the best, but it fits the atmosphere well, so it works. Every song you hear is catchy and upbeat, and puts you in a good mood as you play. One song, called Que Sera Sera, surprised me at first because it used actual english lyrics. After my initial shock, I listened to the song a few times and found that it tells a funky story about a man and his true love, and how he wants to lump her up into his katamari to become a star... I didn't say it had profound lyrics, but I actually appreciate how they managed to turn a game about pushing a ball of random crap into a romance story. (Links to the better songs below)

Gameplay: The game play starts off with a simple tutorial teaching you how to use the simple yet complex control scheme in an efficient way. To move, you push both DualShock 2 joysticks in the same direction, and in opposite directions to turn around. There are also techniques you can use like jumping over your Katamari to point-turn 180 degrees, but after the tutorial I never found myself using them in normal gameplay. Your objective in every level is to roll up any objects smaller than you to grow your volume until you reach the goal size, and by any objects, I really do mean any. There's only one map in the whole game as far as I can tell, but it doesn't seem to get repetitive because you play in different parts of it depending on your size, such as one room, a whole house, a city, a continent, or the whole planet. Every object you see can be picked up eventually. Crumbs, toys, furniture, people, cars, houses, skyscrapers, clouds, tornadoes, islands, and everything in between. Everything you grab makes you slightly bigger, and by the end of the level you feel unstoppable.

Verdict: This game is quirky, and funky, and I can guarantee it is unlike anything else you have ever experienced. It quickly became one of my personal favorites in the expansive and classic PS2 library, and I'm not alone because this game has a serious cult following. Pick up Katamari Damacy if you enjoy unique gameplay and unusual comedy, or just want something different to try. I give this game an 9/10, an awesome classic for PS2.