3D Gunstar Heroes Out Now on Nintendo 3DS: “Blast Processing,” Indeed

Posted on August 22, 2015 by geelw

For those of you who’ve never played it, Gunstar Heroes is quite simply one of the best 16-bit games ever made, period. Japanese developer Treasure made itself a household name among gamers with this 1993 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis release that seemed to use every bit of processing power the console had and then some.

While the game has popped up in a few newer console ports over time, it seems that the 3DS just may have the “definitive” version thanks to Sega’s remaster team, M2. Here’s a fun extra credit read from the Sega Blog on how tricky it was to get the game up and running on the handheld in stereoscopic 3D. The plot is nuts if you try to make total sense of it, but you won’t be playing this for the story. It’s a total run ‘n gun with killer boss fights, a “board game” level that’s worth an entire game in itself under the right developer, and a great soundtrack that drives the action from beginning to end.

Anyway, if you have a 3DS, BUY THIS GAME. If you’re thinking about getting a 3DS, see that last sentence. Hopefully Sega has plans to get this on the Wii U as well as an HD version at some point as it’s a total no-brainer that this is a game that really benefits from a larger screen. We’ll see if that ever happens (it would be nice, Sega), but for now, this one’s a must-buy that still packs quite a few wallops.

Divide By Sheep: It’s The New Math, Kids!

Posted on July 2, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, tinyBuildGAMES!)

If they taught math this way back when I was in grade school I’d bet a heck of a lot of kids would probably be a lot smarter. And probably vegetarian or vegan not to mention not afraid of death at all. Anyway, great and prolific indie developer tinyBuildGAMES does it again with another hilarious slice of pure fun with a twist. Divide By Sheep is a math puzzle game that combines Death, loneliness, sacrifice and too cute to chop up sheep in a game where every move counts. Okay, it’s nowhere as grim as that last sentence sounds at all although a sense of humor is going to be needed in order to get full enjoyment from this one.

If you feel like counting sheep now and getting Death some new wooly pals to play chess with, the game is available on Steam and iOS NOW. Even better (well, if you’re an iOS user), you can get tinyBuild’s Spoiler Alert for FREE and Fearless Fantasy for a mere 99 cents. Those are both hard to pass up deals, I’d say.

Humble Indie Bundle 14: Your “Shut Up and BUY IT!” Deal of the Week

Posted on March 31, 2015 by geelw

Wow. If you consider yourself a gamer and someone who appreciates a damn great deal when it’s seen and DON’T pick this latest Humble Indie Bundle up for yourself, you’re either nuts, have all these games already (even the to be announced freebies?) or just don’t know how incredible a bargain this is. Seriously. Torchlight II is worth the $5.60 minimum (which gets you that game and five others PLUS whatever else drops into the bundle in a few days). Pay $10 and you get the Shadow Warrior reboot added to the pack. Pony up $40 and you get all the games, a cool limited edition T-shirt, patch and even a red bandanna you can do whatever you want with. Form a gang of cheapskate gamers? Sure! Get all fancy and make a laptop cover out of that bandanna? Okay! Grab a fallen tree branch from the nearest park and run away with all those free games? Er… yeah, whatever! Just BUY the dang bundle already and play some of those great games in it, I say. Now, git!

Ember Update: N-Fusion’s Late Baby Gets Bigger and Better

Posted on March 13, 2015 by geelw

Yes, Ember was supposed to be out last fall, but as CEO and creative director Jeff Birns explained at 505 Games recent NYC event, the team at N-Fusion has been a bit busy making things even better. The game looked fantastic when I first saw it, but it’s even more gorgeously detailed and as noted in my previous article, the best-looking isometric RPG on any device. Many new areas have been added, older areas have gotten changes and parts that needed work have indeed been worked on. Ten years of work and a proprietary engine that won’t quit go a long way in realizing a dream, is all I’ll say about the art and vast, carefully detailed open world players will get to explore.

I’ll even go out on a limb to say it definitely gives some PC role-playing games of any era a run for their money. Apple clearly has an exclusive to be proud of (the Steam version will most likely be released at some point after the iOS version), but how do you market such an amazing game on a device where most of its games really haven’t been marketed to the masses like AAA console games are?

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Return of Red Hood – Fish Pasties and the Not So Big, Bad Wolf

Posted on February 20, 2015 by geelw

The next time you feel like a little bedtime story, don’t grab a book from the bedside table. Instead, go download NLB Project’s offbeat Return of Red (Riding) Hood and settle in for the short haul that turns into a longer one sooner than you think. This Russian developed game takes the simple tale of Little Red Riding Hood and makes it into a choose your own adventure experience that ends up going all over the place and then some. It’s also a bit of a meta exercise as the whole thing starts out as one character reading the old story to a little girl as a bedtime story, but at certain points, you get to choose different options that alter the next page of the story.

Part of the humor here is from the developer’s sense of humor and part is from the mangled English translation that makes for some grin-worthy reading. Early on, “Pastries” becomes “Pasties” (and yes, I know all about pasty as a pastry, but this is just a spelling error in the game) and you’ll see a few other grammar issues pop up. That said, even with the bumps and grinds in the translation, the stories play out in some pretty amusing manners. The choices you make turn the really short and familiar story on its ear a few times and with 45 endings to discover, you may be up slightly longer than you thought. Is this for kids? That depends. If you and your kids share the same sense of slightly twisted humor and you don’t mind some bizarre twists to the old story, it’s all good. Just give it a read on your own and decide for best results.

That said, it takes perhaps three minutes or less to get to an ending (more if you’re a slower reader), so expect to get to a bunch of that 45 the first time you pick this up. It’s currently FREE and NLB is also trying to get the game onto Steam Greenlight (go vote for it if you’ve a Steam account!). Some dopes on the Greenlight page are actually complaining about the artwork in the game, but NLB can ignore those fools who don’t grasp stylization or realize that you shouldn’t ever tell any artist HOW to make a storybook look. That, and the CG characters and backgrounds remind me of Access Games’ quirky Deadly Premonition, one of those games that uses its “dated” art style to excellent effect.

Finally, if you like what you see and read, it seems that the game engine is also free to use to cook up your own tales. I can see some writer types I know possibly making use of this at some point. Hey, anything to get more people perusing your work, right? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my “book”. Also, I want some pasties now, as reading about them has made me quite hungry…

Zelda: Sword of Moria Hands-On: The Missing Link Is Coming Along Quite Nicely

Posted on January 31, 2015 by geelw

Packing an encyclopedic knowledge of the land of Hyrule and a passion for sharing it freely with others can be a bad thing if you’re wearing a baggy Tingle costume in public while ranting on a street corner to passersby giving you a wide berth. If that’s you, well… here comes the banana truck right… about… now. On the other hand, if you’re a more creative person like Jessica “Allaweh” Brown, you get cracking on a fan-made game that adds to the Legend of Zelda lore and feels quite like a professionally made product for classic game console. Zelda: Sword of Moria is set two years after the events in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but plays much closer to the original game than its sequel. Brown has been releasing updated demo builds as she tinkers away on her project and once completed, the game will be free to anyone to play.

The game will require the Zelda Classic Launcher to run and should work fine on pretty much any PC. Once you’re all set to play, that recently created intro sequence kicks in and it’s off to the races. Sword of Moria actually begins with Link not having a sword (or any weapon at all) and a slight bit of hoofing it around to a new town to get his hands on one. This lets you see Brown’s nice level layouts as well as the tried and true Zelda gameplay where you’re unarmed for a short bit as you learn some navigation basics and see a few enemies you’ll want to avoid. Once that sword is acquired, get set to chop bushes and cut grass for Rupees and hearts as well as some enemies that previously had you scampering away before they drew a bead on poor Link.

The demo features an open world like the classic first game, but Brown’s braininess about Hyrule has allowed her to fill in some geographic gaps in the world map, making for a sensible and surprising journey while it lasts. In this latest demo build (2.0), you’ll be able to explore, fight off monsters, solve puzzles and find treasure in the Town of Saria, Northern Death Mountain, Calta Canyon and Eastern Calatia. Two smaller dungeons and one Major dungeon plus a few villages are also open for exploration. As this is an unfinished game, there are a small handful of areas that shouldn’t be ventured into lest you accidentally get Link bumped off. But the bulk of the demo looks and feels as if it’s a professionally made first-party game circa 1987 or so.

There’s still a good deal of work to go, but from the time spent with Zelda: Sword of Moira, it’s clear that this is going to be one of those great fan-made games that’s not just another remake or not quite “right” pseudo-sequel that goes off a few rails at different points. Her sticking to lore and dedication to making a game as close to feeling like the original and sequel make Ms. Brown someone to watch. And with work on a few sites, a regular podcast, YouTube and Twitch channel, she won’t mind you watching her, by the way.

Star Wars: Battle Pod – New, Yet Nostalgic, Now In Arcades!

Posted on January 24, 2015 by geelw

Wait, who’s still got an arcade near them? And I don’t mean a mascot character “pizza” chain (yuk!) or a psuedo-pub grub hub with over-sized tablets posing as arcade games. All kidding aside, as soon as I saw that Star Wars: Battle Pod trailer above, I got a hearty laugh because it’s pretty much a far better-looking version of Namco’s classic 1991 arcade game Star Blade. Given the relatively short length of the experience, the specialized cabinet and its unique screen that allows for flawless immersion, the chances of seeing a home version of this game would normally be zero. On the other hand, with VR technology finally getting some sort of roll out within the next year or so, I could see this as some sort of pack-in or downloadable digital game to keep Star Wars fans happy.

In other words, it’s your move, Bandai Namco… Um, let the Wookie win?

The Collectables Blasts Onto iOS Devices Today: Crytek’s Got You Good On A Few Fronts…

Posted on March 20, 2014 by geelw

I was certainly surprised that I’d like a mobile game as much as Crytek’s The Collectables (as I’m not a fan of touchy-tappy gaming at all) when I saw it a few months back, but thanks to the combination of fantastic visuals and easy to get into gameplay (Okay, and stuff blowing up every few seconds), I can say this one’s worth a try. There’s also an addictive card collecting element (thus the game’s title) and some more fun to be had here, but this isn’t a review and I’m keeping it short because I think you should take this for a spin and see what you think. So, yeah- go do just that, I say…

The Collectables: Crytek’s F2P Mobile Surprise WIll Blow You Away…

Posted on December 11, 2013 by geelw

To many fans of their graphically intensive game experiences on PC and/or consoles, the words “Crytek” and “mobile gaming” are probably not even seen as anything close to a reality, but surprise, surprise. DeNA and Mobage are about to knock many socks off with the developers first project, a phenomenal-looking free to play tactical arcade shooter called The Collectables. Yes, the name more than likely has your eyebrow now hovering way above your head, I’m betting, and you’re not alone. My own eyebrow did a back flip when I heard a few weeks back that Crytek was entering the mobile scene, but when I finally saw the game in action last week demoed by a broadly smiling Barry Dorf, I was not only convinced, but I’d go as far to say that this might be the game some “core” gamers who shun mobile and tablet games run out to buy a device to play it on…
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Random Game of the Week: FOTONICA

Posted on July 27, 2011 by geelw

Indie game development is all the rage these days to the point that it’s changed the way games are made and marketed (some would say for the worse in the long run, but I don’t agree and that’s another article for another time). I often play way too many of these when I should be doing more important things, but it’s always great to discover buried treasures before they get uncovered by the usual suspects and dragged out into the sunlight for all to play as some sort of next big thing.

Anyway, Santa Ragione’s spectacular FOTONICA was recommended by a friend and I’m glad I took his advice. It’s a simple, one button game with a stylized look and fast-paced, but easy to grasp gameplay you’ll want to experience for yourself. PC and Mac compatible the game is also a free download (but there’s a suggested ‘pay what you want’ donation I’d suggest you use just to support the developer). Anyway, enough blabbing from me. I’ve a busy day ahead – go play a game today!