#splatoon as a series is also a really cool aesthetic experience with fun character designs and amazing sound design

[pie-bean]

sorry if i’m wrong but you play splatoon, right? could you give me like a short 101 on it? i’m getting it for myself for christmas and i’ve watched some let’s plays but i wanna know more and get some advice. if you don’t play maybe your followers can help lol

Hi! Yeah I'm a big Splatoon fan and play a lot (I post Splatoon stuff on my blog @squid-bean) so I could try!

I think one of the best descriptions I've heard of the franchise is something like "Splatoon is great because even if you miss the enemy you're still helping your team!". The games are very easy to get into for a lot of people because the ink painting mechanic, where ink your own color gives you higher mobility, allows you to help your team a lot by just covering everything in your own color. Getting a lot of defeated enemies (splats) is good but if you're not confident in your aim your teammates will be really grateful – sometimes a match is decided by very slim margins so a well painted home turf might be the key to winning even if the opposing team got more splats in the end.

Other than that I highly recommend playing through the single player campaign. It's both an exciting experience in itself but also an excellent way of learning the different weapons and platforming elements – knowledge that'll help you in the multiplayer.

There's a lot more to mention but I think the best thing to do is just jumping into the game because it's a very intuitive game in my opinion, though a lot of questions will probably pop up as you progress.

If someone else has some good beginner tips feel free to just infodump in the replies! ☺️

[guerilla935]

My Favorite Games That Made Me Care About How I Looked

I’m very self conscious about the way I look in video games. Not only is it normally very easy to change an outfit or get a haircut in a video game it also says something about how I’d like to be perceived, especially in an online game. There are a lot of games that allow their players to express themselves in a lot of really fun and unique ways and I think that it’s really special when you get to celebrate a style that you would never get to portray in real life. These games that I am about to talk about are all games where I was able to look at my character and feel some ounce of pride at something that I had created. Some full disclosure for these images, I pulled them from official gaming outlets and developer blogs but none of these that you are seeing are my original characters. If anyone would like to request to see any of my characters from these games (or any other games!) I would be happy to go and grab screenshots of those characters.

Grand Theft Auto Online

This is a pretty easy choice for most people. I chose specifically GTA Online over any GTA game or Red Dead game because I think the really special part about this is its setting. Your image is not only your character and your outfit in GTA Online but also your car, your house, and your business. There are a lot of different places to choose to call home and there are a lot of things to get “invested” into. For example, my good friend mojo5 runs a night club and wears suits and spends a lot of time gambling at the casino. That’s a character that would be different than mine who dresses and acts like a street racer. It gives your character a kind of personality and back story that is hard to achieve in other games. I have always kind of considered Grand Theft Auto Online to be a modern MMO of sorts, a playground. And as much as it is a huge lobby where you wait to start activities, it is also a sprawling city-space where you can essential live, make money, create this fun fictional life for yourself. And as far as fashion goes, the outfits, the cars, and the real estate help you shape that fantasy. Basically, I can tell you that I spent way more time customizing my character than I spent in actual activities in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Saint’s Row Series

I love Saint’s Row. It is very similar to the last entry in this article but has this unique and goofy style that makes a lot of things okay that I would never do to my GTA character. In Saint’s Row I can have a neon blue Mohawk wielding a 10 foot melee weapon that is designed to look like something extremely unmentionable while driving a night rider space car that is also a tank and it’s totally fine because in the next cut scene you are about to fight Roddy Piper in Keith Davids nightmares. The games are incredibly wild and I love how I can let loose with a lot of different styles, and in the same way that I feel like I am creating my gritty street racer in GTA, I can make my goofy crime lord super hero secret agent in Saint’s Row. I think specifically in Saint’s Row 2 I took it a little more seriously because the tone of the game is a little more serious than the other entries however I have a specially place in my heart for how wacky each game allows me to be.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

You knew we couldn’t just not talk about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With the current situation, the Animal Crossing community is insanely huge. I cannot avoid the heap of Animal Crossing videos and screenshots all over social media. On my island of Sandover Village, I am patiently awaiting the Able Sisters to set up shop so that I am able to put in codes from everyone else’s custom designs that I’m seeing on twitter. That is because I have on my phone a stockpile of sweatshirts, sweaters, robes, and hats that I am actually really excited to show off in game. I tried to create some of my own but I am not one of the gifted seamstress’s that there seems to exist on the internet. I am not very far into Animal Crossing but by looking at other peoples games I know that I have only scratched the surface of my options in the game. I have to commend Nintendo on the amount of individualization that the design pro feature gives to its players. I have never seen a game give players the option to design their own clothing and it makes the social experience of the game feel so fresh.

Dark Souls III

One of the most badass games that I have ever played as far as character design is concerned is Dark Souls III. When I put on a new set of armor I sit in awe of how it looks because I can see each tiny tear in the cape, every dent in the helmet, and the wear and weight of the armor. I was dragged through this game by some friends (because I could never in a thousand years have the patience to beat it by myself) and I followed them to every cursed swamp and death crypt because I wanted to see every weapon and every armor set. You look absolutely ghoulish in every armor set and I love it to death. This game allows so much in the way of customization and I think it helps that almost every gear set is good enough to get you through the entire game and that allows you to play with a lot of different looks and game play styles. This game is tough, really really tough, but you look really good even when you die.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 is a really special online shooter. I think in the month that I played this game religiously the thing that kept me playing was coming back to the stores to see what kind of clothes were in stock and what kind of items I could steal off the players in the lobby. I think that the developers of Splatoon 2 knew that the players were in it for the threads because every reward for playing the game was most likely a piece of clothing. The clothing options kind of vary from academy prep to Patagonia camp wear to skater outfits. And it comes together in this very hipster overall aesthetic that blends really naturally. The game features a mechanic that I really like wear you can walk up to anyone in the online lobby and look at what their wearing and order it. By the time I logged on the next day I had (a noticeably weaker version of) the exact same item but it really makes you feel like anything you see, you have access too which is really cool. And the ordering of the items kept me coming back to play every day.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

I’ve heard it said many times that the real end game content of Final Fantasy XIV Online was the glamor and housing systems, and for most people they aren’t wrong. I will never stop being surprised at the outfits that players can put together in this game. I have seen millions of players in my 750 hours in Eorzea and I have not seen two characters look the same. The customization options are really limitless and I truly believe that. I played a healer mage and in my time at max level I had outfits that made me look like a cowboy, a thief, a fox spirit, a grim reaper, and even one that made me appear like a real healer mage. The clothing options throw a Final Fantasy twist on every kind of style that they set to replicate. So even though all the outfits can be wacky they never feel out of place in the world. If you want a game that you can make almost 50% just about customizing your character and taking it out to the town to show it off or in big raids to flaunt your style then this might be your game.

Pokemon Sword And Shield

Pokemon is still trying to get it right but Sword and Shield is Game Freaks best attempt at trainer customization. The clothing options in the game are very European, well, they have always been that way but they are ESPECIALLY European in this one. Probably the greatest customization offered is the hair which in the world of anime characters is the most important one. I loved designing my character in this game but it was just so brief because shopping in this game is so boring as most clothes in the actual stores are very samey which makes the act of shopping pretty boring most of the time. I would roll up to a new town really excited to see what kind of stuff they had in the shop but it was just new colors for the same weird duffel bag that your character had already. Note that the game is mostly about the Pokemon so they really didn’t have to put any trainer customization in the game to make it a good game but they did a half decent job putting this much customization in the game and I feel like it’s going to keep getting steadily better the more times they implement this feature into their games. Big plus, you can design your trading card in the game and it is the most adorable thing and feels like a huge payoff to have a cool card if you’ve put a lot of effort into your trainer.

Soul Calibur VI

So I haven’t actually played Soul Calibur VI, I bought the game and went immediately into character creation and started making my own roster of fighters that I ended up using maybe once or twice and moving on from. The character creator in this fighting game is really special. So the idea is that you choose a character that already exists and you keep their move set and fighting style but change how they look and immediately the things that came out of the community were hilarious. Some are kind of terrifying but they come shockingly close to being somewhat recognizable. For me it almost comes down to that being someone who is unfamiliar with the cast of Soul Calibur VI I cannot tell the difference between actual characters from the game and characters frakensteined together in the character creator. As on of the most fun character creators I’ve ever used I think it’s at least worth googling what other people have created.

God of War (2018)

The newest God of War introduced something that we never got in the older games and that was the ability to change out what Kratos was wearing. While it was important in the game to maximize his stats, it also made you look cooler and cooler as the game went on. I wouldn’t say that you have a lot of options of things to wear in this game but I always felt bummed when I picked up something with relatively low stats that looked amazing. Later on the armor sets become more like trophies for completing hard tasks. The design of each piece of armor is really intricate and amazing to look at and while you can’t just pick whatever you want, I really wish that you could.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

In the Reaper of Souls expansion pack a new vendor was added to Diablo III that changed the way that I looted in the game. The vendor was called the mystic and she would make a piece of gear look like any other piece of gear of the same type. This meant that I could look amazing all the time without sacrificing strength. The way that the database of appearances you could pick from expands over time gave so many options that I couldn’t decide at some points. The coolest armor in the game was now accessible at any time. And the armor in Diablo III looks tight, sometimes I would argue that unless you pick some unique stuff it doesn’t make that big of a difference because of the isometric point of view in the game but it is really fun to have an added layer of customization in Diablo.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So this is actually a section dedicated to Nexus Mod Manager because Skyrim in itself doesn’t actually have a whole lot of variations in the ways you can dress. But with the powers of modding you can now do absolutely anything and there are a whole group of 3D modelers out there getting you immersive and lore friendly items that make you look a whole lot cooler. The wonderful world of modding can turn kind of creepy very fast, a lot of very suggestive mods are out there and a lot of very inappropriate things so you know, a fair warning. It’s incredible when you can make it work and keep it from getting to the level of ultimate Skyrim. You can change and add clothes and weapons, add hair styles, and even add entire races into the game. Sometimes though I really believe that I like browsing mods a lot more than I like actually playing with them but I found that it is really satisfying to download a mod like Immersive Armors and see just how much it changes how diverse the selection of armors that not only you but everyone in the game now wears can be.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

So I believe that some other previous Zelda titles had the ability to change Links outfit but never to this extent. What I think is the coolest part about the clothing system in this game is that you wear certain clothes to survive certain climates but you can also forget all that and make a yummy meal instead that lets you be warm wearing the desert clothes in the snow. The amount of armors that you can amass in this game starts off kind of underwhelming but becomes really fun and interesting and serves all sorts of fun fan service for fans of the series. This game doesn’t have the versatility and variety of some of the other games in the series but any game that lets you cross dress to sneak into a city of warrior women is credited for its costume design in my book.

League of Legends

I have spent a shameful amount of money on skins. I hate League of Legends and I hate most of the business practices of Riot Games but their skins just look good. I can appreciate when someone I don’t like makes something good and they consistently pump out awesome looking skins that are frankly worth the money if you play the game regularly. Back when I played this game daily I put up way too much money, even I think about 18$ just on a skin that changed colors when you typed a specific command. Anyways that’s really all I have, there aren’t a lot of games where I like the skins, especially the fact that they are mostly behind pay walls but League gets a pass I suppose.

Destiny Series

I used to be really into playing a specific game mode in Destiny named Iron Banner. I played a lot of it in Destiny and a good portion of them in Destiny 2. When you played enough Iron Banner in a year you were able to collect an armor set to commemorate the achievement. Almost all the cool armor in Destiny has purpose to it. Not only do you get to decide how you look but it also is you showing off the fact that you completed a raid, were really good at sparrow racing, or kicked major ass in the crucible. Each armor was recognizable and everyone knew what it meant. I think that is what makes the customization in Destiny so rewarding, its that it is in itself an actual reward for completing hard tasks that not everyone will be able to complete.

Code Vein

Out of all the anime games I’ve played I think what stands out to me the most is that their character creators have all been really bad. This is where Code Vein really shined. Code Vein has this dystopian vampire aesthetic that is really unique and allows for a lot of ways to make cool characters that fit into the look of the game. I don’t think that what they’ve done here is completely new but they have this style that is exciting to play with. Making a revenant is fun and builds this anticipation for the rest of the game. I also respect the games decision to allow you to make modifications to your character after the game has started which is not something that most games would allow. Code Vein has these cape’s that you can wear to gain abilities and those are cool to add onto your outfit but I don’t think that it outshines what the character creator has done here. It’s a niche thing I guess but if you have always wanted to make your own anime vampire then this is it.

A Persona

I really like making characters for a reason. I think a lot of the escapism of video games hinges on me placing myself into the character on the screen. That’s why I love what you can do in games like Animal Crossing that is all about creating exactly what you want and Final Fantasy XIV Online where you get to exist and share in a world as a persona of sorts. Being able to customize a character in a video game does not make that game good or bad, but I think that when you are given the option the developer is given an opportunity to make it a very special experience and allow you to be unique within a community of people online. And the internet has made that sharing of characters really special, allowing everyone to see how unique of an experience you can have with a game by beating it with “your character”.

Special Shout Outs For Stylish Games And Characters

SSX series being dripping in 90s style

Also NBA Street Vol. 2 for the same reason

Persona 5 for being the most stylish game ever

Halo because space marines rock extra style points

Katana Zero for being badass and 80s neon will always be in style

Specifically Graffiti Mario in Super Mario Sunshine he had flair

Samurai Legend Musashi for having a stylish game case but being a horrible game

Devil May Cry just for existing

[destiny-smasher]

Off the Hook

(copied from my Twitter thread here) So, yea! @SplatoonNA 2 has ended its run of content! A solid two year run! At this point it's possible I've played it as much as I played the original game, maybe even a bit more. But compared to a lot of people I've known since it's release, I'm definitely more of a casual fan. It's a fun game oozing with aesthetic and has one of the most solid gameplay foundations I've ever seen -- EVERYTHING about the game's mechanics culminates into a multi-layered experience where single, co-op, AND versus are designed to facilitate fresh shooting gameplay. EVERY single second of playing Splatoon multiplayer entails making choices. The story/Octo exp. have so many great level designs. Multiplayer and its ranked modes require different strategies. Salmon Run is THE most hardcore co-op I've ever seen. It's such wonderful game design. With that being said, now that #FInalFest #Splatpocalypse is over and the 2nd #Splatfest cycle has come to a close, I want to talk a bit about the single most important aspect that has impacted my life regarding the game: #OfftheHook

Rewind back to when these two were first introduced: I was unconvinced that I would enjoy or care about them as much as the Squid Sisters (who are actually, like, cousins? I think? nvmd) But two years later and these two warm my heart in a way VERY few fictional duos do. What's most interesting to me about this is that while there IS a decent amount of in-game banter between the pair over the course of the past two years, they have SO MUCH less actual character development/narrative than other couples (they are a couple don't at me)

Honestly, a lot of my affection for them has grown from the way the in-game presentation leaves enough context for us to read inbetween the lines regarding how well they know each other, how much they care about each other, how much they respect each other despite competitions. Seeing their interactions both before and after the #FinalFest, brief as they were, really solidified how these two VERY opposite personalities have had a positive influence on each other, even if we haven't necessarily witnessed it firsthand. I think this is part of what makes them so valuable in the mainstream (?) media -- they are a power couple who is ALREADY happy, proud, living their best lives for and with one another. In the current climate of the world, that's inspiring to see, whether you're 15 or 33. We still don't know much on the details of their backstories but we definitely know that Marine comes from a very bad place and Hime comes from a very privileged one, and their relationship seems to have helped them both grow into better people. Everything about their designs, their personalities, their CONCEPT as a BAND and how they function/perform their roles within it, everything about them embraces that sort of "opposites attract" aesthetic and I am all about it. While Callie and Marie are cute and great and I like them, I ADORE Pearl and Marina, because they went the extra mile to not only flesh them out as characters but ensure everything about their presentations, personalities, etc. embraces that "opposites attract" concept. 'well cool that's great and inspiring but yea lots of things do this so whatevs' Yea, you're right, but lots of media do not do this while also basing their entire core visual, gameplay, audio design SPECIFICALLY AROUND two sides battling against each other. EVERYTHING about Splatoon is about ___ vs ___ From the hosts welcoming you when you boot up the game, to the different modes you play, to the way everything is presented, to the AUDIO stylings of Off the Hook, to the core concept of the Splatfests themselves. And at the end of the day, it is fucking NICE to see the end result of ALL OF THIS ___ vs ___ be embodied by two characters who represent that who LOVE EACH OTHER no matter what and who make each other better because of those differences and not despite them. Yea, the Squid Sisters did this but to such a simpler, more surface level degree. They were the beta. Off the Hook is the fully realized version of it. If you don't believe me just LISTEN to Squid Sister songs versus Off the Hook. LOOK at the character designs. Read the dialogue. The fact that Off the Hook has hosted actual real life concerts - IN THE REAL WORLD - isn't just some indication of "people be horny for pop idols" (I mean that IS a thing, separate discussion I ain't educated enough on to get into), it's because they KNOW they have a good thing

Splatoon isn't just for kids, it's also for adults who are nostalgic for the aesthetic of BEING a kid, and the fact that Hime (20) and Marine (18) are young adults -- INBETWEEN kids and adults -- cannot be a fucking mistake, either. Anyway, this is all to say, I am so impressed in a way I rarely am in that the Squid Research Lab was able to take the mechanical design philosophy of Splatoon 1 and EXPAND upon it, fucking OWN IT 100%, make sure that everything about Splatoon 2 embodied the concept. Green versus Pink, Pink versus Blue, Gold versus Silver, Ketchup versus Mayo, Chaos versus Order, we can have fun arguing over the most mundane preferences or the most basic, broad-sweeping aspects of existence, but at the end of the day we CAN be better for it. We CAN be made better, we CAN grow, not despite those differences but BECAUSE we hash them out, because we argue, make our cases, see the other side's passion, etc etc. It's my favorite message/theme any piece of media can discuss and Splatoon 2 causes such an emotional reaction from me because the CRAFT of it is so passionately detailed and embraces this theme in every. fucking. layer. of itself. So yea, #Pearlina is a goddessdamn inspiration to me that I will probably carry with me for a very long time, and Splatoon as a franchise is so fucking impressive for how young it is. I hope the years to come incite as much warm fuzzies as other long-time Nintendo series have. The fact that the final artwork we got shows the pair swapping the iconic components of their attire -- their headgear -- is just such a beautiful and fitting sendoff that wraps a lovely bow on the whole thing. As far as I'm concerned, they are now engaged, will happily wed.

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Video Game Year in Review: Honorable Mentions

When I compiled the list of games I played this year that didn’t make it to my top 10, and weren’t remasters, remakes, or re-releases (see previous list), the number came out to just over 10, with the few over the 10 spot either just not being particularly remarkable (Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion) or games that I put so little actual time into that I really didn’t get the chance to form coherent thoughts about them (Prey: Mooncrash and BattleTech, both examples of types of games I want to resolve to not be so afraid of playing in 2019).

So the remaining 10 that I did want to mention are an interesting bunch. Not all of them are games that I loved. A decent amount of them are games I had serious issues with. But they all had something to them, something that made those issues that I had all the more frustrating, because it prevented me from dismissing them outright. My feelings about these games are varied enough that I wanted to rank them, so I suppose this list could just be called “Reese’s Top 20 games of 2018: 20-11,” or, “The Problem Children,” or something, but “Honorable Mentions” works fine for me.

10. The Messenger - Though I have never played Ninja Gaiden, and therefore don’t really have any nostalgia for the type of game this dual-8-bit/16-bit/action-platformer/Metroidvania was clearly going for, the early parts were executed pretty damn well. Tight controls, great music, some very fun and memorable boss fights, gameplay that was challenging but not, I imagine, anywhere near as rage-inducingly challenging as the games it was based on. Those initial four or five hours or so felt enjoyable and complete enough that the fact that I fell off pretty soon after the game pulls a very significant aesthetic and gameplay shakeup not enough to make me hate the game. As cool as a concept as it is to literally jump back and forth between different eras of game design, the “Metroidvania” part of this game was filled with the shit that tends to frustrate me about that style of game - aimless wandering and tedious backtracking. A very interesting experiment that, for me, didn’t quite pay off, but the effort produced a pretty unique game.

9. Iconoclasts - As far as its gameplay goes, this game is almost the inverse of The Messenger’s brand of Metroidvania, highlighting all the things that I actually can love about the genre. Sure there’s backtracking, but the layout of the levels is thoughtful and inspired enough that it rarely feels tedious: I often found myself very excited to gain my new ability and revisit a previous area because - just like the best Metroid games - I know exactly where I can use it, have been wondering about it for a while, and can finally see what’s on the other side. What ended up bogging down the experience of this game for me was the surprising emphasis on story and long-winded dialogue scenes. While I definitely really liked a handful of characters, the game’s increasing willingness throughout its run-time to put verbose speeches in all of their mouths wore a bit thin, given how thoroughly okay the general plot was. Still, game has some of the absolute most gorgeous pixel animation I’ve ever seen.

8. Monster Hunter World - As it seemed to be for many, the streamlined (though still irritatingly idiosyncratic) systems management, lush world and creature design, and conveniently slow part of the year that it released all made this the first Monster Hunter game I was willing to fully commit to. For a while, the game really won me over - experimenting with weapons was deeply satisfying, and the care and evocative detail in the designs felt inspired and compelling. I even played a bit of multiplayer with friends, and had a lot of fun with it, despite how generally committed I tend to be to single player experiences. After a while, though, I stopped being wowed by the animations and controls to start to be bothered by how careless the game seemed to be about its colonial fantasy, what a generally destructive force you and your team are on this beautiful world. It’s not as though this isn’t something that was obvious from the beginning, it’s just that for a while there, I figured it must actually be going somewhere with it, that there must be some commentary it was building toward. What I was met with was disappointing silence, and LOTS of grinding.

7. Red Dead Redemption 2 - I felt a lot of ways about this game, some of which I managed to capture in the review I wrote a couple months ago. There’s so much about this game that I hold against it and Rockstar, both surrounding it (the abusive culture of crunch in its development, their lack of care in getting an indigenous and/or black actor to play Charles) and within the game itself (the stretching of a decent story to an absurd length, controls so clunky they often broke the role-playing the rest of the game was so good at encouraging). But the things that I loved about this game - the stunningly atmospheric world, the complicated and nuanced character dynamics in the camp, the ways in which it allows one to experience and engage with its details - all stuck with me as well. This game represents so much of both what I want games to be going forward and what I never want them to be again.

6. Minit - Weird as it sounds, as much as I liked this game, my main gripe with it was the primary mechanic around which it was based. I loved the minimalist black-and-white art style: the way the white lines shined on my HDR TV is an excellent example of how “simple” graphical styles can take advantage of modern technology as well as any graphically demanding powerhouse. The world was a joy to explore, a miniature Zelda with a unique sense of humor. I honestly just never got why I was only allowed to enjoy it a minute at a time. The game seemed to do little to justify its central hook, and most of the time it ended up feeling more like a hindrance than a meaningful game changer. Nevertheless, Minit gave me a short, sweet experience that stuck with me more than I expected it to.

5. God of War - Having never really liked the previous games in this series, I went into this one with fairly low expectations, despite the near-universal praise it was getting. The story really didn’t do much for me. The father/son dynamic was fine, but hardly the innovative step forward in video game narratives many seemed to claim it was. Kratos is still an inherently ridiculous character, no matter how much depth they try to give him in this game, though I did thoroughly enjoy Christopher Judge’s performance. The real hook of this game, outside of its very pretty visuals, is its really just superb combat. They nearly entirely did away with the hacking and slashing of the previous games, and created a deliberate, thrilling system of combat juggling. There are a decent amount of moves at your disposal, but it never feels like an overwhelming amount, and the balancing act you can achieve in utilizing all of them properly results in just some of the most satisfying combat I’ve ever experienced in a game.

4. All Our Asias - This was the first of several lo-fi 3D polygonal games I played this year - the others will show up in my top 10 - and I’m just so excited about the coming wave of game developers inspired by 90’s PS1-era aesthetics, an era I’m personally much more nostalgic for than the still-prevailing 16-bit pixel art of many indie games. This is probably also the weirdest of that style of game that I played this year (and given what one of the others is, that’s saying something), an essay in video game format, an exploration of the bizarre nature of memory, told through abstract shapes and landscapes. Creator Sean Han Tani tells a wonderfully personal story here about racial identity and complicated family relationships, by navigating the conceptual framework of your player character’s father. It’s a singular experience that I still think about often, nearly a year after playing it.

3. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure - I’ll admit that my time with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle last year was my first real dip into tactics gaming, an experience that allowed me to gingerly step my foot into some deeper water this year (some of which I discovered was still too deep for me, like BattleTech). But for as easy as the first half of that game was, I maintain that the back half was surprisingly challenging. This year’s DLC, Donkey Kong Adventure, is not challenging. Donkey Kong is so overpowered it feels like it must have been a mistake, and the way that he can combine attacks with other characters is just ridiculous. But, weirdly enough, that’s part of what I enjoyed about this addition, a fairly breezy few-hour adventure where the most fun comes from seeing just how badly you can fuck some Rabbids up in a single move. Having Donkey Kong grab an enemy, throw him at another enemy, hit both plus a nearby enemy his banana boomerang, then having Rabbid Cranky charge into all three of them and blast them with his shotgun-esque Boombow never really gets old, at least for the well paced 8 or 9 hours that the game lasts.

2. Dead Cells - An endless, side-scrolling action platformer with tight-as-hell, ultra satisfying combat, beautiful art design, AND it was made by team of French socialists with no bosses who all get paid the same? I mean, fuck yeah. Dead Cells, a game that I originally played a bit in Early Access last year, and enjoyed so much that I decided to wait until the official release before truly delving into it, is a game that largely plays like the dream it sounds like on paper. I’m not sure if I’ve ever played at 2D game with combat as good. Generally, I’m not huge on run-based games, and did hit some walls in this game where I just felt like my own ineptitude was getting in the way of my enjoyment, and the game wasn’t giving me much between runs to make me feel like I was actually making any progress. I still haven’t actually beat it, but it’s become my default palate cleanser game that I play a few rounds of in between other games or while listening to podcasts or music, so I’m still plucking away at it. I’ll get there someday.

1. Return of the Obra Dinn - I enjoyed this game so, so much, even if sometimes more on a theoretical level than a practical one. The style is impeccable - I really will never get tired of the brief tease of opaque, incidental dialogue or sound, followed by the sudden explorable tableau of death(s), soundtracked by haunting strings. The gameplay is inspired - I’ve had few gaming experiences in recent memory as fulfilling as any time the little music que popped up after I solved a death, confirming that I had gotten three deductions correct. I have to admit, though, that those moments were spread further out than I would have wished. Part of this is just happenstance - I didn’t realize until quite a few hours into this game that by zooming in on someone, you’ll match them to their picture, something that would have undoubtedly saved me a lot of frustrating time in which I was grappling with trying to figure out whose fuzzy faces were whose. Nevertheless, I felt like I was too often given too little information, and had to take guesses between one of a few possible suspects, many of which were informed by racial assumptions that made me actively uncomfortable. This was, no doubt, part of the point, so it’s hard for me to hold it against the game, but it regardless did lead to a pretty exasperated final couple hours of play. Despite these complaints, its hard for me to think of this game as anything other than a wildly successful achievement - innovative, inspired, both intelligently designed and remarkably trusting in its player’s intelligence. Maybe a little too trusting, in my case.

[nyrator]

What are some of your favorite games?

Oooohhhh boy

Picking favorites is hard especially depending on my mood and how recently I played them but lesseee

long post so putting it under a read more but tl;dr Cave Story, TWEWY, and Yume Nikki are pretty cool as are some other games

Cave Story (PC)

This is what I think of when I think of the ideal “video game”. It just feels like what a video game should be to me. The great artstyle (and the + version has an increased resolution which is also great), the fantastic music and sound design (which again the + has three variations to choose from, “original 8-bit-esque”, “new wiiware interpretation-esque”, and “remastered renditions…esque”)…

and of course the gameplay is phenominal with an arsonal of useful weapons and great difficulty (the secret dungeon is incredibly hard and I’ve only beaten it once but man it felt good to beat it), the world and story are phenomenal, I’ve played 72+ hours worth of this game (at least five full playthroughs of it) and I loved every moment of it. Only thing I haven’t done is some of the ridiculous A-rank achievements, beat Boss Rush (got to the secret boss at least), or beat Hard Mode (got to the final final boss).

The gameplay is “travel around these different areas, shoot at monsters, platform and explore. Your weapons level up by collecting little triangles enemies drop, and de-level when you get hit. There’s three levels of weapons, and you can replace certain weapons at points in the story.”

I also always saved the person because when I first started playing this game, the only thing I looked up was “are there any missables” and I had a spoiler free list of things I should look out for and the most important ones were all about saving them so yeah.

also this entire game, soundtrack, visuals, everything, was made by one person and it blows my mind.

The World Ends with You (Nintendo DS)

this game is incredible.

Like. This game utilized everything the DS had to offer and it was incredible. I discovered it because of Nomura, the guy who worked on Kingdom Hearts, worked on this (and it really shows in the art). At first I thought it was just some random rhythm game, but then they announced it might appear in KH3D and I was like “okay fine I’m getting it”

and I got it and it is fantastic. You play as a punk antisocial kid named Neku, who hates people and wants to be left alone. Then stuff happens and your forced to play this game and end up with a partner and a timer on your hand (the timer is story only so no worries about that).

You play the game on both screens, playing as both characters with a shared HP bar. Early on you’ll have it on Auto-Play which means the AI can play the top screen, but once you learn how to manually play and combo multipliers together between the two screens, it becomes incredible.

The top screen is buttons (you can use either the D-pad or the ABXY buttons depending on your hand orientation), where you do attacks which end in a certain symbol. Get the right symbols and you can get stuff for a special combined attack. The bottom screen is the bulk of the action, where you play as Neku. You get pins and any way you can think of using the bottom screen, there’s a pin for it. Swipe, flurry of swipes, circles, taps, blowing into the mic, yelling into the mic, closing the DS itself (the only other game I know that did that was Hotel Dusk and mannnn did it take me forever to figure that out)

it’s so fun and hectic and good and I love it. It’s RPG-ish, it has equipment, stats, and a fantastic way of handling everything. You can replay any point in the story, you can set any BGM music you want for the pause menu, you can adjust your level with a slider and change difficulty at any time (and of course the lower level/higher difficulty means better percentages for rare specific item drops to collect), you have hundreds of pins to level up in a variety of ways, you have food you can feed your characters and they all have their individual likes and dislikes, you can dress them up with fashion for equipment (though no in-game model changes unfortunately), it’s so good with so many unique and convenient things

the music is great and skate and atmospheric and good. The art is great, the writing and characters are wonderful and snarky and a good amount of puns from some characters. There’s an underlying mystery and it’s like “ohhh that happened” “OHH WAIT THAT HAPPENED INSTEAD OH MAN” “ …. wait no no you mean THAT was what happened oh god” and yeah gooood stuff.

also everyone is like “oh man where do I find this game I can never find it” and I just got it for 20 dollars on Amazon in 2012 and I check and it’s still 22 dollars on Amazon so yeah (there’s also a phone port that I hear is better looking with full versions of all the music but the entire top screen removed which I feel is sad because it removes the whole “you need your partner” thing and simplifies the gameplay)

Yume Nikki (PC)

it’s

it’s an experience

Yume Nikki is like. I can’t recommend it as a game, because in terms of gameplay it’s pretty basic and open. But mann, it is some kind of art and I love it.

It’s an exploration game in RPG Maker 2003. You play as a girl known as Madotsuki, you’re in a room with a balcony, you have a TV and a video game system with one dreadful game for it, and all you can do otherwise is sleep. And when you sleep, you get access to 12 doors to explore, and can collect 24 Effects. … And that’s it. That’s the game. The only words in this game are the names of the effects. Some help, some are purely cosmetic, and some have specific uses or make NPCs do certain things.

It’s such a surreal, alien game. Just big areas to wander around in to find things, and then go deeper and deeper into the areas to newer areas. It’s all exploration. There’s no explanation, the things you see are so abstract that it’s mindblowing, and the creator… has never explained anything and has mysteriously vanished after the 10th update for the game in like 2008. Someone’s maintaining the webpage, and people say they have their approval to make things like merchandise and such, but to the general public this Kikiyama fellow is as mysterious as the game they created and it’s such a mystery.

I of course fell in love with the game. I used a written guide to give me a general idea of where things were (I only had trouble finding like two-three things and needed a visual aid for them), and I barely ran into the famous NPCs that are as iconic as the game is.

and man it’s incredible how this game has gotten popular and how people try to fill in the blanks. Like, people have their own agreed upon names for these NPCs. Like, Madotsuki is the only real “name” we have. Uboa (because of the scream), Monoko and Monoe (Monochrome Girls), Poniko (Pony-tail Girl), and most surprising of all the fan favorite Seccom Masada (Sentimental Komuro Michael Sakamoto Dada-sensei) how that got agreed upon I’ll never know

OKAY SO UH that’s pretty good for now right

honorable mentions:

Knytt series (exploration metroidvania-ish game that let’s you climb walls and collect stuff and explore to good ambient music, I recommend all of them including Within a Deep Forest which is a game where you play as a ball, which also crosses over with Knytt in Knytt Underground. Knytt Underground is fantastic and pretty and great collecting and exploring game but mannnn is the writing and character artwork god-awful, at least to me. It also has less abilities than the other games but what it does have it makes great use out of)

Animal Crossing New Leaf (I have played this game every day since launch and it is so relaxing, just live in a town and talk to neighbors and buy and sell stuff and decorate things)

Hyper Light Drifter (a very pretty game with great difficulty and visuals and wandering around and dying a lot but in fair ways. It’s a top down hack-n-slash-n-some-shooting game with fast dashing and deadly enemies and deadlier bosses)

999 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (a thriller visual novel/escape the room type game for the DS, the game itself was okay, the story does a fantastic job of making you believe what its talking about is actually real and deals with some theories that screw with you, and solving the mystery and figuring out who the bad guy is was mind-blowing. The other games in the series are alright and handle the gameplay better but mannn nothing will beat the way this game’s story messed with me)

Kingdom Hearts (this is more of a past me but yeah I used to love the action RPG of this game but I really need to replay the first two games to see how they feel since the newer games have left me “ehh”) Uhh off the top of my memory Re:coded was the most fun (fight me) and CoM had the best story, KH2 was too easy and I want to play the FM of it eventually, KH1 was great but had those early issues and stuff but also need to replay it.

Final Fantasy IX (I still haven’t beaten it legit but I sat and watched my neighbor play it when I was 9-10 and it was fantastic and I was always traumatized by Blank’s petrification because as a kid I never undid it, also Kuja is the best character of anything)

Grow Home (a short little game that deserves love because it’s so simple and you just grow plant towers in a pretty world and try to reach space)

Splatoon (listen man the aesthetics are great the gameplay is great and fast and tight and it’s a shooter that kept me active and it’s unique and I love it and I love my Splattershot Jr and character customization)

mmmm that’s all my mind wants to think of today so yeah~ I swear I’m always forgetting some really good ones too.

also uhhh Saints Row 2 was the best game I can imagine that genre being (good size map, minigames, huge amount of customization, good mix of humor and drama), and the Tony Hawk series (specifically 2 and Underground 2) those are also good games though I haven’t played the Tony Hawk games in ages (had THPS1-4, THUG2, and THAW, rented the original Underground though and did all the story stuff but never goofed around in it like UG2. American Wasteland was blehhh and didn’t bother with anything afterwards)