Heroes of Loot: Budget Bitty Dungeon Crawling Hits The Vita

Posted on September 23, 2015 by geelw

It’s a darn good thing I pay ZERO attention to what internet comment sections on game and video sites say. Absolution Games’ budget twin-stick dungeon crawler Heroes of Loot is actually pretty fun to play and dirt cheap at $2.99 on the Vita. The bite-sized dungeons, fast-paced gameplay and simple retro looks aren’t getting a lot of love from the usual suspects, but the game is great fun so far. You’re basically getting a Gauntlet homage with a bit more humor and difficulty that ramps up as you clear special optional side quests.

yeah, yeah, it was/is a tablet game, but so what? If you like your dungeon crawlers and teeny sprite characters zipping about laying waste to hordes of monsters, collecting loot and trying to stay alive, this one’s right up your alley. Or right down your dark dungeon hallway. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have a LOT more monsters to kill. In the cutest possible manner, of course.

Go Get Too Many Indie RPGs Thanks To Bundle Stars

Posted on September 21, 2015 by geelw

The bundle-fest continues over at Bundle Stars, who seems to want you to spend an inordinate amount of time stuck in front of your PC or laptop with a goofy grin or grimace on your face as you play a new batch of RPGs they have up for grabs. The RPG Champions 2 Bundle gets you eight Steam games for the ridiculously low price of $2.49 – all you need to do is find the time to play them all.

I can’t help you there with the timey-wimey stuff, but you’ve got two weeks to snap up this deal before it vanishes. Or at least bug one of your buddies who has oodles of free time to go do something with that time and stop popping over randomly to bend your ear with his or her crazy ideas. A decent game or eight is enough distraction to keep them out of your hair. Unless they get stuck in some dungeon and keep calling you for help.

Time For A Few Classics, Cheaply: Bundles And Sales Galore This Weekend

Posted on September 19, 2015 by geelw

Yeah, yeah. I’ve been a bit busy with some oddball real world occurrences recently, so I’ve been a bit behind in these bundle posts. Of course, that means there are a LOT of new-ish bundles and sales out there begging for your attention. Here are a few must-buys that have popped into my inbox over the last week:

Retro Legends Bundle ($2.49): Bundle Stars does it again with this excellent mix of a whopping 17 titles for under three bucks. There’s SO much classic gaming in this instant backlog that you’ll need to invent a time machine so you can play everything and then rewind the date back to before you got into everything here. There’s a megaton of Duke Nukem content, two classic Wizardry titles, the FPS/RPG hybrid Strife and many more games that should get fans of the old school grinning. You may also want to peek at the other bundles on the site as this past week there have been some incredible daily bundle and single game deals listed.

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Some Fallout 4 Stuff To Fall Out Over

Posted on September 17, 2015 by geelw

Bethesda Softworks ~~thinks~~ knows it’s clever, getting all these amazing Fallout 4 goodies out there in the wild for all us collector types to collect as if we’re in one of their games collecting stuff. Well, without the being attacked by mutants and other irradiated deviants in the Wasteland. Here’s a quick peek at some of the nifty (and somewhat safe) stuff to be found in your travels. If you happen to be a lazy Vault-dweller too frightened to leave and explore the outside world, guess what? The internet is your friend (mostly). You can get your F4 goodies delivered just about anywhere in the U. S. of A. with a few clicks of a mouse. Well, provided that mouse isn’t alive, about a foot or so long (d’aww! it’s just a baby!) and and trying to bite off one or more of your toes as you roll around on the floor with it fighting for your life.

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Persona 4: Dancing All Night Hands-On: Should You Be Dancing? Yeah!

Posted on September 15, 2015 by geelw

As a longtime fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series since the mid-1990’s, I’ll admit to getting a glorious case of the heebie-jeebies about Persona 4: Dancing All Night as soon as I heard it was in the works. However, as Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax showed after I dragged myself kicking and screaming into both games and loving them, a little funky is a LOT of fun.

When the opportunity arose to check out a review code for P4: DAN, on went my finest disco wear with the hope that I didn’t look too foolish on that digital dance floor. Thankfully, the game doesn’t disappoint where it counts and even the most jaded non-music game fan of the franchise will want to slide somewhat electrically into their favorite game emporium on September 29, Vita in hand to snap this one up.

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20XX: This Mighty Number’s Going To Be Mega, Man!

Posted on September 10, 2015 by geelw

If you’re a Mega Man fan who’s cranky that Kenji Inafune’s “homage” Mighty No. 9 has been delayed until next year, you might want to poke your mouse over to Steam pronto and check out 20XX, the upcoming 2D side-scrolling rogue-like platformer from Batterystaple Games currently in Early Access on Steam. That alpha version will soon be getting boosted up to beta status next Tuesday, but what’s here is very playable and well on the way to being an instant classic any MM fan would love. 20XX is a mash-up of familiar gameplay with rogue-like randomness to the levels and lots of loot to collect. It’s also old-school tough, great looking and a ton of fun to play.

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Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space Trailer #2: It’s Boom Time For Big Space Bugs Soon

Posted on September 3, 2015 by geelw

I’m thinking Xseed Games is going to be selling a lot more copies of Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space than they expect. The game is headed to the Vita this fall in both physical and digital forms and given that it’s the best version of the game to date, I can see fans of the series who haven’t played it snapping it up and hopefully recommending it to friends who also like offbeat Japanese games full of destructible environments and tons of gigantic bugs, robots and spaceships to blast. While the ESRB hasn’t rated the game yet, there’s nothing “mature” about this one at all. It’s mindless fun at its best, but also a game where a bit of strategic experimentation in the weapons you use can mean the difference between crushing defeat and total success.

I’ve played this oldie to death as an import on the PS2, PSP and Vita and I’m looking forward to the English localization just to see how it’s turned out. Xseed took a campier tone that expected with the title, but it’s all good in the end. This is one of those games where you get so many hours of play out of it that paying full retail on day one makes perfect sense. You’re not going to get 100% completion on this one for a while and the added online play should help make this one even more fun if you’re into playing with others. All the game needs now is a release date and all I need after that is time enough to sink a few dozen hours into it all over again.

Fast Racing NEO: Shin’en Gets 60fps Looking Fine On The Wii U

Posted on September 1, 2015 by geelw

München, Germany-based Shin’en Multimedia has been something of an under-appreciated developer since 1999, producing close to 30 games primarily for Nintendo platforms using proprietary engines. The upcoming Wii U exclusive Fast Racing NEO is not only their best-looking game to date, it’s going to be one that just may make Shin’en a household name if the game plays as great as it looks.

While it’s not a “realistic” racer by any means, the game certainly shows that the Wii U can do fast-paced visually intensive arcade racing under the right hands. The game certainly gets some decent mileage from the F-Zero/WipeOut inspired visuals and great sense of speed on display, both of which may help silence the Wii U naysayers out there. Well, for about the time the video runs. Of course, those haters more than likely missed out on Fast Racing League, to date one of the more incredible programming jobs on the Wii. Fast Racing NEO just shows Shin’en doing what it does best and doing it really well.

Still, gorgeous visuals and all, it’s hard to say how well the game will do as an exclusive on a console with not as large a dedicated user base as others. On the other hand, given that Shin’en’s Nano Assault NEO eventually made it to the PS4, it would be cool to see this new game pop up on both the PS4 and Vita just so those who don’t own a Wii U can see what all the fuss is about. As usual, we shall see.

Humble Weekly Bundle Features Some Great Rising Stars

Posted on August 28, 2015 by geelw

How’s this for a “don’t miss it!” deal? Seven of Rising Star Games‘ best indies for a mere eight dollars (or more if you choose)? yeah, I heard your jaw drop from here, pal. Every single RSG indie up for less than a song. Anyway, what’s in the digital box? Look in the box below and go get your bundle before time expires on this fantastic deal:

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut is worth it for it’s supremely bizarre take on the horror and open world game genres, but everything here is worth your time if you’re one of those open-minded gamers who loves variety and plenty of replay value. Ha – I see that you’re all busy buying and downloading now, so I’ll just silently sneak away and let you get to it.

Yakuza 5 Update: Still Waiting For A Date, Discount For The Early Birds

Posted on August 27, 2015 by geelw

If you got rid of your PS3 when you got your PS4, you may want it back for at least one more exclusive of note. General Director Toshihiro Nagoshi and Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama are back with two more in-depth “making of” videos for Sega’s upcoming western release of Yakuza 5. Despite its age (the Japanese version shipped back in 2012), the game looks quite spectacular on the aging PS3 hardware and is finally coming to North America later this year as a digital only PSN release.

While the game may be well-aged to some out there, according to the press release it’s looking to be the most feature-packed English version of any in the series:

Yakuza 5 features more mini-games than previous titles, a modified battle system as well as enhanced customizations and interactions in the signature hostess bars of the franchise. In addition to these features, Yakuza 5 also introduces “Another Drama” which is a series of side stories that focus on each protagonist in-depth and are separate from the main story of the game.

In addition, Sega is making a tempting offer to those who pre-order the game with a 15% discount off the $39.99 price plus the free Yakuza 5 XMB theme below:

You’d think Nagoshi and Yokoyama should be singing “We Built This City” at this point, but instead they just happily chat more about the game and what players can expect:

It’s great to see Sega keeping the Yakuza flame going despite the lengthy wait between releases. Hopefully fans will be on board with the digital-only version and snap it up once it’s released.