Review: TRI: Friendship and Madness

TRIAllLevelsPlatform: PC

Developer: Rat King Games

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (95%)

It’s very hard to believe two people (Jana Reinhardt and Friedrich Hanisch) programmed the stellar TRI: Friendship and Madness, but that’s what it says on the official site and in the game credits. This family-friendly first person puzzle game plays like a hybrid child of Portal and a very well made Minecraft mod where you soon find the only limitations to solving the increasingly challenging levels are your imagination and sense of exploration. The game starts off small as a simple, somewhat straightforward Point A to Point B “find the keys to clear the level” experience, but once you get to drawing triangular platforms that can send you almost anywhere on a map, the game opens up into pure brain expanding territory.

Despite the often high level of challenge in reaching some really out of the way items, once you get the hang of things, the game is always a joy to play, particularly when you’re making your own route around the expansive and often gravity defying maps that have you moving around at seemingly impossible angles… Continue reading

Sunday Gives Me Both Barrels, But I’ll Be Quite Alright…

(Thanks, John Thomas!)
 
And how was/is YOUR Sunday? Mine is pretty lousy at the moment, but pretty much everything’s fixable with some time and a bit of money. My home PC decided to flip out and not want to boot up properly, my backup solution isn;t working (thank goodness for the laptop), the connection today is super-slow, I accidentally broke the paper holder on one of the printers here (nothing a little glue can’t fix, but it was a total “DUH!” moment when it happened), my Logitech G15 finally died, I can’t find the driver CD for my gaming mouse, some of the plants I was growing decided to keel over thanks to the temperature changes this past week and I still need to get to that pile of laundry I was supposed to do last week, but kept putting off because of so many games coming in and me needing to get to them. Yaaaaah. There are a few other things going on as well, but those are for me to know and you to not find out.


(Thanks, DreamWorksTV!)
 
Eh, small world problems, but all happening around the same time makes for a REALLY annoying day. Eh, here’s a little laugh for you while I get back to trying to actually be something resembling “productive” today. Back in a bit…

Do Your Eyes Need a Workout This Saturday Night? Well, Here You Go!

(Thanks, GoodOldDaysReturns!)
 

As for me? Well, I’ll have to pass on these sassy eyeball exercises, as Dungeon of the Endless and TRI: Friendship and Madness have both been giving them quite a wild time this week. That’s a good thing in terms of their overall scores, by the way. Anyway, I’m in the midst of some innnnnnteresting changes on the work front, but no reveals yet, people. I’ll let you know what’s what should what happen and if it somehow doesn’t happen, I’ll be all “Wha’ Happened?”:

(Thanks, MovieClips!) 

Random Film of the Week(end): Adrenaline Drive


 

Adrenaline Drive DVD coverShinobu Yaguchi’s films always make me smile because they’re consistently fun to watch even if they don’t achieve everything they need to over the course of their running times. 1999’s romantic (and slightly black) comedy Adrenaline Drive does make the most of its hilarious plot and energetic cast although it takes a slight misstep later on with a very short burst of violence some viewers may find slightly sours the experience. On the other hand, given the character in question dishing out that brief bit of ouch time, it’s a sort of cathartic moment for him after all he’s been through… Continue reading

PlayStation Store’s Sale of the Dead Brings You Some Scary Good Bargains…

PSN Sale of the Dead Banner(shakes fist at monitor)… Stupid Sony. Having another PSN sale on some stuff I might want just when I’m poking around for something light and kind of fluffy to play between bigger games. Yeah, I got Dead Nation (finally) for under 4 bucks, but stopped there because I do have some things to take care of here outside the gaming sphere. Anyway, check out the long list of games, movies and TV shows (okay, mostly movies and TV shows, as the game presence is a bit limited this week) for some decent deals if you’re looking to stock up on content for one of your consoles or that Vita you’re not telling anyone you own for some oddball reason.

Or, hell… at least get Dead Nation if you own a Vita. It’s a ton of fun so far and I just may want someone around to hop online with in the not too distant future…

Bayonetta 2: A Few Firsts for Nintendo to Celebrate…


 
I got a nice and hearty laugh yesterday thanks to the following email header: “A sexy, all-new action game available now” and that’s because it was an email from Nintendo. I don’t think any of their in-house advertising has previously used the word “sexy” (feel free to correct me here), so that’s what made me laugh so much. From now on, I want Nintendo to find any way to squeeze the word into EVERY game they produce. Let’s see Bayonetta outfits in that next Metroid game (whenever it gets made), the character herself pop up in the new Smash Bros. game, an Amiibo figurine just because she needs one and what the double heck, why not get Princess Peach out of that pink getup and Zelda out of her usual fantasy schmatta and into something more… sassy! er, SEXY!

Oh, the possibilities are endless, folks… Continue reading

Velvetwire Powerslayer: It’s The Little Things You Don’t Think About That Make The Most Sense…

Powerslayer Charging Animation Until some of us see how much of it we actually use on a daily basis, we’re all energy hogs to some extent. Yep, I’ve bet you’ve bought plenty of devices in the past or plan to that require recharging and you probably don’t even think about how much energy you’re actually consuming and wasting when you’re charging (or overcharging) that new tech toy. Like it or not, all that wasted juice adds up on the cost front not only in your (increasing) electric bills, but in an overall effect on the environment. Yeah, yeah, you normally don’t think about that at all because your new device is SO cool that you can’t wait to show it off until it’s deemed “obsolete by the manufacturer and you rush out to replace it a year or so (or less) later. But the folks at Velvetwire want you to think outside a few boxes and get real about your power consumption and recharging needs… Continue reading

Stuff I Need to Play (at Some Point): Pier Solar and the Great Architects (PC)


 
Yaaah! When did this slip out? Oh, September 30? Well, I wasn’t paying attention, but this one’s on my list of too many games to buy and play. *Sigh*… well, given that I have the Genesis version here and have made it about halfway through, I know what to expect already. That said, the HD visual upgrade makes this one the one I’ll probably default to once it gets purchased. So many games… so little time, grrrr!

Oopsdate: F6 Is Your Retro Friend in Kromaia!

cropped-kromaia_hex-large.png 

Aha. Well, it’s Board of Corrections time! I just got a note from Kraken Empire that hitting F6 while playing changes the visuals in Kromaia to a nicely nostalgic arcade look. I’m not near the game at the moment, but a quick call to someone with the game confirms this. Welp, time to replay this one at some point this weekend (after my TRI review and perhaps Dungeon of the Endless, which has been keeping me up way to late since I got my review code). That, and I think I may challenge Score Attack mode, but it depends on how awake I am when I attempt this. All these great games are keeping me awake longer than usual… 😀

Review: Kromaia

Kromaia BoxPlatform: PC

Developer: Kraken Empire

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (90%)
 


 

Now, here’s a crazy paradox for you: Kromaia is an arcade-style shooter that’s currently PC-only, yet it bridges that gap between old and new tech and ideas past the point of reinvigorating a genre that might seem a better fit for consoles or yes, arcades. Yeah, yeah – you PC die-hards will be rolling your eyeballs and shaking your fists in my general direction right about now. But I counter that stuff by saying this is exactly the sort of game that needs to be on more platforms and not just exclusive to PC, no matter how large the potential player base is. It’s that good, that fun and that challenging and nope, you 3D-hating shmup fans aren’t getting off easy by skipping this because it’s not got a sprite in sight. The game is new-school looking, old school hard as nails and while “short” (Note: Arcade 101, Class 1: it’s not the length, but how much you go back to the game that counts), packs quite a memorable punch…
Continue reading