So... the Playdate...

Um... hi.  <.<  So, that's a thing.  The Playdate handheld console is a quirky little device being made by Panic, the developers of Firewatch. It's one thing for a company who makes software to suddenly venture into hardware manufacturing, but it's another thing entirely for a company to make not only a handheld that has a crank... but to do so retroactively. 

The Playdate's screen is monochromatic: black and white.  Technology for screens in mobile devices is always improving, but Panic feels that there's a certain place in gamers' hearts that will welcome in a new handheld that decides to not only stop and smell the roses, but to go back to when they were first planted.  The way Panic describes it, though, is that it won't be like the old Game Boy screens where there's motion blur and jagged lines; it should be clean and sharp.  So, it seems Panic is giving us the old with the new.

It's not just the hardware with the antiquated screen and the gimmicky crank that's peculiar.  It's the library.  There's going to be a "season" of twelve games distributed once a week for twelve weeks, included in the machine's 150 dollar price tag, and these games won't be revealed until they show up on your Playdate. They will all be exclusive titles developed by indie game companies.  One such game will be developed by the people who made Katamari Damacy, which really piqued my interest as I love that franchise.  There's also a game called Crankin's Time Travel Adventure where you'll use the crank to rewind time.  I love time traveling games, so this is another notch in this weird little handheld's favor.  And I'm sure there will be a fishing game for it.  I mean, come on!

I've decided I'm going to try to get one of these.  I signed up for notifications on their website and they said that stock will be very limited.  I have no idea how many they'll make.  I'm hoping that more people will be turned off by this idea than turned on so that I have a chance.  This Playdate thing is just too unique of an idea to pass up. 

 

The Loot Box Is Dead

Well, I tried.  I kept it going for five issues, at least.  The thing is, I just wasn't feeling that happy about the format.  It just seemed to me that I was looking for things to talk about just to have content in my blogs.  I also felt that the stuff I was talking about at the beginning of the blog was already outdated by the time I posted it on Saturday.  Last week, I also was a bit busy with things and didn't have much time to browse gaming news.  I don't want to feel like I need to be pressured to fill my blog with content.  I want them to come naturally, organically.  So, I'm going back to the old ways of blogging when I feel like blogging.  This means you'll see some frequently, some sporadically.  I'll try not to leave month long gaps like I did in the past, but I'm hoping this will ultimately be for the best.

Since I have you here, I want to give you a gaming update.  I have beaten Motorstorm Pacific Rift finally.  Now, when I say I beat a game, I mean I played it up to the point where I got a credit roll.  Beaten is not to be confused with finished, which some people do.  "How could you beat the game
?  You didn't do everything!"  I ... beat the game.  I did not finish it.  So, I did not finish Motorstorm Pacific Rift because I forced myself to stop trying to get first on every event.  I was doing fine settling for second and even third for a few events, but one event had a time condition of 4:40 in order to unlock the last event in its series.  I tried and tried and tried to win that race in under 4:40, but no matter how well I did, even doing a perfect race with no crashes and wide turns, I couldn't get it.  I was beyond done with the game at this point and told myself, "You saw the credits, that's all you need."  So, I let it go...

... because I really wanted to play this:

I have wanted this game for the longest time not only because I was looking for a reason to get back into my PSVR, but I also heard it's one of PSVR's best games.  I got it for a gift last week but was waiting to finish Motorstorm Pacific Rift, which I ultimately had to give up on.

Stop it.. *ahem* So I started Astro Bot last night.  I only played a little bit of it, a few levels, but it was something I desperately needed. I was getting so stressed out from the other game that I started to actually hate gaming, so I need this change of pace.  Astro Bot is an absolute joy.  It's so unabashedly cute, there's no way you can't play it without smiling.  You can easily see that it's heavily influenced by the 3D Marios, but that's not a bad thing at all.  In fact, Astro Bot is Sony's example to Nintendo on how VR gaming should actually be, not in a cheap cardboard imitation of VR.

In Astro Bot, your goal is to find your fellow robots that got blasted off their spaceship by a greedy alien.  They've been sent to worlds in different parts of the galaxy, and you have go through the levels locating them all.  I've only played three levels so far, and I've only missed one of them that I had to use a walkthrough to find.  For the most part, they're pretty easy to find, but some can be tricky.  There's also a chameleon that you have to find and when you detect it, you need to stare at it until it loses is camouflage. Once that happens, you unlock a challenge that's based on the theme of that level.  Of the challenges that I've played, two have been clearing stages in under a minute and one scoring as high as possible in a ball throwing game.  They're not really challenging, but they are fun.

I've also really enjoyed the music as well.  It has the lively free-going feeling that, again, was most likely inspired by Mario games, and I can't wait to hear the later tracks.  It's also one of the best looking VR games that I've played.  Having a PS4 Pro really helps in this department because its increased frame rate allows you to enjoy the environmental details that much more.  And there's no sudden jerks or split-second refreshing like in some VR games that cause people to get headaches or nausea.  If you have a PSVR, you should definitely add Astro Bot to your collection.  If you don't have a PSVR, maybe it's time to consider getting one.  There's a good number of great VR games to check out, this one included.

I'm also still playing Puzzle Quest on the PSP making a good bit of progress.  The thing is, I get distracted very easily in RPGs when I'm able to do other things.  In Puzzle Quest, you can actually get mounts by capturing creatures that you've beaten a few times.  You can train them by challenging them to battles where their levels go up, increasing their benefits to you in future battles.  I keep getting new mounts that I want to try, so I kept training them.  I do enjoy the game, but I wish I could get myself to focus on the story so I can get this game finished... sorry, beaten... and move on to something else.  I feel like I should be making more progress in my backlog, but I haven't.

I think I've decided what my next two games will be.  I'm still doing only one game a month, so for this month, it will be:

I've been watching this one for quite some time.  I had hesitations because I wasn't sure how the gameplay would be, but it's been getting good reviews.  So far, it's at an 81 at Metacritic.  Not bad for a game that didn't have anywhere near the promotional backing of recently released games such as Rage 2 and Days Gone.  My game for June will be:

I was contemplating getting SMM 2 for a while, but wasn't quite sure.  I really enjoyed the first SMM, but what I didn't like was how I'd spend hours on a level and then hardly anyone would play it.  I'm afraid that's going to happen more so in this game, but with the recent SMM 2 Direct announcing new things such as a story mode, I decided I'm going to take the plunge.  Plus, I really did thoroughly enjoy making my own levels.  If not that many people play them, well, that's ok.  

I think I'll end this blog by talking about the next 10 games that got announced for the Sega Genesis Mini. They are:

• Mega Man: The Wily Wars
• Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition
• Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
• Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
• Beyond Oasis
• Golden Axe
• Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
• Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
• Vectorman
• Wonder Boy in Monster World

It's another solid list.  For starters, Mega Man: The Wily Wars is a compilation of the first three Mega Man games with Genesis-exclusive levels that's never been released before in the States (aside from a Sega Channel exclusive), so I can't wait to play these exclusives levels.  I was curious whether or not the Genesis was going to get SFII, because it needed the six-button controller, but only came with the three button original.  Sega said they're working with 8-Bitdo to make a six-button controller for the Mini, so I'll have to get one of those.  I wish they put the six button controller in to begin with. Ghouls 'n Ghosts I don't particularly care about, because I have that on the SNES Classic.  I don't remember playing Alex Kidd, Beyond Oasis, or Wonder boy and I know I haven't played Phantasy Star IV, so I'm looking forward to trying those.  Vectorman I couldn't really care about, but I can't wait to play Sonic Spinball again.  I had that game and played it all the time.  Loved it!

We still have 10 more games to be announced, and already I think the Sega Genesis Mini is shaping up to be a better Classic console than the NES, SNES and PS combined!

As always, thanks for reading!

The Loot Box Vol. 5

The Sonic the Hedgehog Movie

So there's that... I got to be honest, I'm torn here.  On the one hand, this movie looks legitimately bad.  It's so cringe worthy.  The design of Sonic itself... it's just not right. On the other hand, it has Jim Carrey.  I'm a huge fan of Jim Carrey, so I'm going to watch this for him.  In fact, I love Jim Carrey so much, I have most of his movies.  Something tells me that I'm probably going to end up buying this movie just because of Jim Carrey.  I can only hope it turns out half-way decent, but I'm not getting any hopes up.

And wow, before I could even get this blog up, it appears Paramount has listened to the internet and will be redesigning Sonic.   But this just begs the question to be asked: how did the current design ever come to pass?  If they really were listening to fans, wasn't there any fan that was working on this film that said, "Wait, this doesn't look right?"  I can't wait to see what the new Sonic looks like.  Let's just hope it doesn't end up looking worse.  But still, we have the rest of the movie to worry about.  Aside from Jim Carrey (who may or may not end up being fat depending on how many people complain about him), the rest of the movie just doesn't look that great.

Virtua Racing for Switch

So I just heard that Virtua Racing is available on the Switch's eShop, but only in Japan.  A release date for the USA and Europe hasn't been confirmed, but I can only hope that means it IS coming.  I loved Virtua Racing back in the day and almost spent 100 dollars on the Genesis version.  I'm trying hard to remember, but I think I actually bought a 32X for Virtua Racing.  Because of my one game a month restriction, I'm not sure if I'll get this game or not, but I'm also hoping that Sega Ages brings us Daytona as well.  That one I probably would spring for.

Forza Comes to Switch

Who would have ever saw that coming?  Before we get too excited, though, two things: one, it's just a rumor at this point and two, if Forza is coming to the Switch, it'll be in the form of Forza Street.  Forza Street is a mobile-style racing game that has been available for Windows for some time and is headed towards mobile platforms.  It's a free-to-play game with microtransactions, so we all know the game's not really worth playing.  It would be nice to see Forza on the Switch, but if this is how we're going to see it, I'm not sure enough people are going to care about it to invest time in.  Had it been something like Forza Horizon 4, however, that would have been a real eye catcher.

RGT 85 talks a bit about the budding relationship between Nintendo and Microsoft, and it's certainly very interesting to see.  Back when Cuphead came out for the Xbox One, I sorta wished in vain that it would come to the Switch (everything does eventually) because it was a Microsoft published game, but here we are.  Word is, Ori and the Blind Forest is coming too, and Switch owners who've never played it owe it to themselves to play it because it is fantastic.  So yeah, while Street is the Forza game no one wanted, it could very well lead to an actual Forza game coming, or other MS games, in the future.

A New Earthworm Jim Game Is Coming!

But it's an exclusive for the upcoming Intellivision Amico... Ok... Um... what? They honestly just shot themselves in the foot with this announcement, because I don't believe this new console by Intellivision is going to be successful at all.  The new Earthworm Jim would have benefited infinitely more being released on the other platforms as an indie game, even just being released on the Switch alone.  This has got to be one of the biggest head scratcher moments in a while... I love Earthworm Jim, but I'm not buying an Amico just for that.  It'll come to the Switch everything does eventually).

Gaming Update

There hasn't been anything new recently.  Still playing Motorstorm Pacific Rift.  Still playing Puzzle Quest.  Motorstorm Pacific Rift is really trying to be the death of me, though.  I finally moved into the final rank and races are now three laps instead of two so that means it added yet another lap of things that could go wrong.  And they do go wrong, quite frequently.  Last night, I spent around an hour and 45 minutes trying to get first place in one event.  Finally did it, though.  I have enough points in the festival (the game's campaign) that I could just get third in the remaining events and still win it, but I have OCD when it comes to racing games.  I just have to have first... so annoying.

Puzzle Quest has been fun at times, but it's also very frustrating when the luck is not in your favor.  Most times, I can't get anything going, so I make one move and suddenly, they're making all these chain combos and attacks.  It's discouraging when you're winning a battle and then suddenly, you're defeated in the very next turn.  I do get lucky sometimes, though.  I managed to conquer my first city who had over 200 HP and I had a measly 95 I think.  Don't know how I managed that.  Like I said, I get lucky.  I also enjoy other things you can do in the game like capturing monsters and learning spells, and crafting items.  Amazing how there's so much depth in such a simple puzzle game.

As always, thanks for reading and look forward the next Loot Box!