The Silver Case Demo Out NOW: Get It And See Why It’s So Desired

Posted on August 8, 2016 by geelw

As someone who owns the original PlayStation game that never completed it thanks to poor Japanese language skills (hey, I’m working on it!), I’d been hoping to get some hands-on time with the recent BitSummit demo of The Silver Case even though I didn’t go to BitSummit. Thankfully, the folks at grasshopper manufacture and publisher Playism read my mind and have decided to help me (and you) out significantly.

So, what’s this all about? Watch and learn:

1999 – the “24 Wards”. A string of mysterious serial killings plagues the city.
The detectives of the 24 Wards Heinous Crimes Unit have their eyes on one man: Kamui Uehara, legendary serial killer and assassin of a number of government officials 20 years prior in the now-famous “Silver Case”. However, nobody knows the true identity of Kamui.

Has he really returned? Who is this infamous serial killer?

The player takes control of the protagonist, a member of the Special Forces Unit “Republic”, from a first-person perspective. The game takes inspiration from the adventure and novel genres, leading the player through an in-depth story in which the truth is gradually revealed as they solve various puzzles, offering a fresh and unique experience.

“The Silver Case” was the debut game from developer SUDA51, who has worked on “Flower, Sun and Rain”, “Killer 7”, the “No More Heroes” series, “Lollipop Chainsaw” and currently “LET IT DIE”. Now, “The Silver Case HD Remaster” will become the maiden work of Grasshopper Manufacture Inc., scheduled for release this Fall, 2016 on various PC distribution platforms.

The game will be fully remastered, while retaining the same atmosphere of the original 1999 game for Sony PlayStation, and the game will be fully localized into English for the first time, finally giving fans of SUDA51 worldwide the chance to enjoy “The Silver Case”.

Yeah, so color me thrilled that this is coming out and sooner than later. Feel free to download it and give it a go if you’re a fan of point & click-style adventures and keep an eye peeled for more news as to the game’s release date.

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Review: Assault Suit Leynos (PS4)

Posted on August 8, 2016 by geelw

Platform: PlayStation 4 (via PSN)

Developer: Dracue Software

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

MSRP: $19.99

ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site (JP)

As someone who fondly remembers Target Earth/Assault Suit Leynos on the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive, reading online about two years back that the game was being remade was quite a surprise. Dracue Software (Armored Hunter Gunhound EX) has brought the game back for the PS4 in fine form indeed, although Assault Suit Leynos isn’t without a few flaws. For fans of the classic or those gamers who want a taste of old-school gaming as an education in patience and learning how to play over more guided game experiences, this storied shooter will keep you busy from the beginning and coming back for more.

The game’s Arcade Mode expands the story of the original game, adding subtitled Japanese voice-overs and “cinematic” camera cuts to approaching danger to the mix. Even on the lowest difficulty setting, the game provides a hefty challenge. That Assault Suit is a heavy beast with an increasingly growing arsenal of weapons and while not the most nimble mech out there, it gets the job done. As in the original game, a regenerating life meter is your main buffer from an early demise, but it’s not any sort of invincibility guarantee. Enemies come at you pulling no punches in many forms from armor suited troops to gigantic spacecraft firing death from multiple weapons. The game’s levels vary in scale, but you’ll generally be attempting a few tasks from straight up blasting, escort missions, and yes, big boss battles. While unlimited continues make it possible to complete the game in a relatively short time, the true fans of this one KNOW this isn’t a game to play through ONCE and never touch again.

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Review: ABZÛ

Posted on August 2, 2016 by geelw

Platform: PC (Steam) / Playstation 4 (PSN)

Developer: Giant Squid Studios

Publisher: 505 Games

# of Players: 1

MSRP: $19.99

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Official Site

With so many indie games flooding the market these days worth checking out, a few of them have either dropped off my radar, are already on it but not out yet, or never landed there in the first place because keeping track of them all is a Herculean task with me as Sisyphus filling in for the duration. Giant Squid’s absolutely stunning ABZÛ fell into the first category partially thanks to me seeing who was behind it last year and thinking “Eh, it’s in good hands, so it doesn’t need me pushing it at all.”

Amusingly enough, that intentional ignorance worked out in my favor when I finally got to play the game last week when 505 Games bought it to NYC. I went in with no expectations other than thinking I’d get maybe an hour’s playtime in and enough impressions to write up a dandy hands-on post. A few hours later, I had to *force* myself to stop playing the game and make a graceful exit with my head filled with too many gorgeous images and a desire to see what the final two levels I’d left untouched held in store. Echoes of that Ecco the Dolphin on the Dreamcast and the underappreciated PS1 and PS3 Aquanaut’s Holiday games floated in my brain all the way back home, lasting until I got an email with review codes. Then, it was time to take a trip back under the sea and dream out loud again.

An incredibly beautiful, masterfully crafted and about as great as it gets game experience, ABZÛ soars to some impressive visual and aural heights as it takes you to deep places you’d never thought you’d go outside watching a nature program. You can call it a “spiritual successor” to thatgamecompany’s Journey if you like, but the single player focus and grander sense of scale makes this even more personal. This ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the “See”‘ has to me, a more grounded and pure emotional impact because of its blend of realism and fantastic elements grab you right from the start as the game takes you on a thrilling yet paradoxically mostly relaxing ride that changes in tone a few times before it ends.

As with Journey, it’s also a game that’s just great to watch someone play. Controls are simple, fluid and intuitive enough for anyone that can hold a controller (or use a keyboard and mouse on PC) can hop in and fully enjoy the entire game from start to finish. The replay value is also more than there as this is one of those games where you can hop into a map and actually have your character meditate serenely as assorted sea life does its circle of life thing all around you.

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SLAIN: Back From Hell- Rebirth = More Death (And This Is Good)

Posted on August 1, 2016 by geelw

When last we left Wolfbrew Games‘ crowdfunded bloody heavy metal baby back in March, it was curled up in a fetal position after being excoriated in some fair to unfair critical and player reviews that beat it every which way to Sunday. While some of the complaints were valid, the piggybacking negativity freight train that hit the game got a wee bit out of hand in my opinion. Some who “expected” a 2D Dark Souls meets Castlevania clone when the developer was going for something less derivative let out a few too many howls at the moon. But such are the days where popular games get used as benchmarks for almost any other game that dares have a dark theme and a whiff of gore.

Fortunately, the last few months have gone into polishing up the game, adding many new elements and fixing issues that kept it from being all it needed to be while keeping the core of the game intact.

In other words, folks… it’s BACK:

I’ve just sunk about a half hour into Slain: Back From Hell and it’s absolutely a better game experience so far. The developer has even done something awesome for those players who bought the game back when it was initially released, offering up an extra game code FREE of charge that can be gifted to a non-Slain owning friend. Talk about customer service at its finest! I’m in the middle of a ton of stuff this week, but this will get reviewed ASAP. I just hope my well-aged Xbox 360 controller survives while I’m trying to appease that Metal God.

-GW

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Portal Knights Goes BIG So You Can Go Home

Posted on August 1, 2016 by geelw

…and stay inside playing a lot longer. 505 Games and developer Keen Games have announced a huge new update to their popular family friendly crafting/action/RPG, Portal Knights that includes many requested features such as voice and text chat for online play, remappable controls, and a ton of tweaks and fixes. The new larger islands make the overall game world even more fun to run around in, and my logging in to check out the changes also revealed the game’s visuals have gotten nicely upgraded as well.

Check out the new trailer and screenshot slideshow below.

-GW

Office Suicide Saga: Final Boss Battle, Indeed

Posted on July 28, 2016 by geelw

So, there’s actually a game called Office Suicide Saga, but it’s not what you’re thinking. Unless you’re thinking correctly that it’s a game made to draw attention to abuse at the workplace. Polish developer Despair Games (go figure, right?) has their pride and joy up on Kickstarter, but it’s kind of stalled out and is in need of open-minded funders of all stripes.

Here’s a gameplay video sample to check out:

There’s also an open beta to play if you want some hands-on time as a heartless CEO, so get clicking and spend some of that bankroll helping Despair become a lot happier. I say they should try for a Steam Greenlight vote-in as well.

-GW

Retro-Bit Generations Just May Give That NES Mini A Run For Its Money

Posted on July 28, 2016 by geelw

Remember that big news about the Nintendo-produced NES Classic Edition coming in November? Well, say hello to some actual competition. Gaming accessory manufacturer/distributor/sourcing agent Innex Inc. is planning to distribute a rather and looking quite essential cool mini console of its own called Retro-Bit Generations this year for the same $59.99 price point as Nintendo’s system, but with a much larger on board games lineup (100 titles!), two controllers, and a VERY handy SD card slot.

Check out the details below the jump. I’d never heard of Innex before today, but they just cracked my radar screen with this news. Click away here to check out their other Retro-Bit consoles. Thanks, Mika!

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BUY IT! Bundle Stars Offers Up Sega Genesis Classics Dirt Cheap

Posted on July 23, 2016 by geelw

So, Bundle Stars is running a really nice deal on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive classics that can’t be beat.If you’ve got a Steam account, LOVE great deals and are into classic 16-bit games, this is a deal you cannot miss out on. You’ve just under five days to take advantage of this, so get on it, I say!

Although I have all of these (and more!) on cart, I ended up grabbing 20 for $4.99:

Gain Ground
Alien Soldier
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 3
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
ToeJam & Earl
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
Bio-Hazard Battle
Beyond Oasis
Light Crusader
Dynamite Headdy
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Shining in the Darkness
Shining Force II

24 cents each? A steal, I tell ya. Of course, getting to PLAY them with my backlog? HA! I may as well go adopt a few kids and leave them my Steam account for future reference.

DOGOS: OPQAM’s Root Grows Into A Mighty Shmup Oak

Posted on July 21, 2016 by geelw

Developer OPQAM’s first game, Project Root was and is a pretty solid modern take on the top down arcade shooter that slowed the pace down and opened up its maps to allow for near total freedom to fly and blast enemies through some fairly lengthy missions. That game really felt like a modern take on Thunder Force II‘s top-down sections, but some critics and gamers didn’t “get” the game’s seemingly languid pacing at all, opting to call it “boring” when this wasn’t the case. To each his or her own, I suppose… but this guy thinks a lot of people got it wrong.

Still, it seems OPQAM took the brickbats to heart in creating DOGOS, its upcoming PC, PS4, and Xbox One follow up, set to land soon as another digital-only release. It’s been Greenlit on Steam and looks as if it’ll be a big hit for the Recent hands-on time with a three-mission build shows the developer has hit on a great combination of classic shmup gameplay set in an more structured open map that almost gives the game the feeling of a dungeon crawler. There’s a story here to follow about Desmond Phoenix, a lone pilot tasked with some heavy duty mission work on an enemy-packed planet, but I’ll save that for the full review later. What you need to know is the game controls like a dream so far and the go-anywhere aspect coupled with the ship maneuverability really stand out. Yes, there are bosses and mini-boss ships to face off against with players needing to shoot aerial and ground targets as they fly around each large level. While the camera is generally top-down, OPQAM notes a few cool features in the final product:

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Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure 3D: Join Thursday’s Twitter Chat!

Posted on July 20, 2016 by geelw

Hey! Got some burning questions about the Nintendo 3DS version of Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, coming soon to the handheld? Well, join the Gurumin 3D Live Twitter Chat this Thursday (3-5pm Pacific Time, or 6-8pm here in NYC) on the game’s Twitter page! If you’re asking “What’s Gurumin?”, well, thank me now for removing that stone off your head and getting you into the daylight!

Here you go:

While you’re cooking up those tasty questions for tomorrow, check out this blog post on the Gurumin Rocks site to find out a few cool nuggets on how the game’s battle system evolved during development. I’ll be sitting on this session at some point, but don’t mind me – I’ll just be taking a break from a really insane backlog, chilling with a cold drink watching the questions roll in.

And if you need to get Gurumin and don’t own a 3DS, you’re still in luck! If you own a PSP, Vita, or PS TV, or have an active Steam account, well… you know what to do, right?