Some games I’ve played recently, none of which are quite notable enough to write up a full article about:

Astronot (iOS): An unapologitically low-res IOs metroidvania somewhere between Metroid 2 and Redder in terms of complexity (one ‘scrambled’ screen I ran into hints at a reference to the second, but it may also have been an honest bug). There are only a handful of powerups to collect and enemies to defeat, and a lot of space to explore. I eventually gave up on it due to the lack of an automap and a a few poor presentation decisions- mostly centering around insufficient differentiation between foreground and background tiles. Others may enjoy it more than I, and it’s lightweight if you’re itching for some exploration-on-the-go. There’s both a full and demo version available.

Platformines beta (PC): Perhaps best described as Borderlands by way of Metal Slug, this platformer/Roguelike is about exploring a randomly-generated cave in seach of a set of key items. Along the way, you’ll be looting treasure and stockpiling a set of also-randolmly-generated guns. It was a lot of fun for the two hours or so I played the beta for; while I’m not entirely sure that there’s enough meat to the game to keep it interesting for the advertised 5-10-hour playtime, it’s worth keeping an eye on. The beta can be downloaded here, and there’s a trailer available here.

Blind Man’s Dungeon (iOS): Japanese developer Skipmore has produced a number of small, free games for iOS, including Rotten Tangerines, my second-favorite tangerine-themed video game. Blind Man’s Dungeon is their latest, following a hero who’s decided to blindly charge into his local dungeon, with the plan of left-hand-ruling his way to treasure and glory.

Note to aspiring adventurers: This is not a good plan. Do not do this.

You control a fairy with the power to create temporary walls; your goal is to use this power to guide the hero, who will turn left whenever he bumps into a solid object, toward treasure to collect and monsters to slay, while avoiding hazards along the way. Collecting treasure creates traps which will damage the hero if he crosses them; while the hero is capable of destroying most monsters, there are also some that will damage him as well. I’m not sure how long the concept will stay fresh, but it’s been pretty decent so far. It’s also ad-supported and downloadable for free here.

Oniken (PC): This one has been making the rounds on a number of news sites, so you’ve probably seen it before. The upshot: It’s a NES-style platformer recently released, starring a sword-wielding Kenshiro lookalike on his quest to defeat the robotic Oniken. It has the difficulty level you’d expect from an NES game- it certainly doesn’t pull its punches- but it has the smoother controls of a modern platformer. It feels a bit like Shatterhand, or one of the NES-era Ninja Gaiden games; it’s solid, although it admittedly didn’t do a whole lot for me. The full game costs $5; I’ve only played the demo, available on their website.

- HC

A quick one for today- better than continued radio silence, though, I guess.

Ether Vapor has long been one of my favorite doujin games; it’s a very polished sci-fi-themed shooter. I wrote up an article about it over at Hardcore Gaming 101 when it came out about five years ago.

Somewhat out of the blue, I found out today that the developers are releasing an updated English version later this month by digital download- it’s got a pretty serious visual overhaul, although what I haven’t seen any other changes.

It’s a polished effort by a skilled team, and it’s a lot of fun- I’m pretty psyched for the release. Ether Vapor Remaster goes for sale on their website June 29th for $8; they claim that a Steam release will be out soon after.

- HC

I picked up Iridium Games’ Sequence a few weeks ago during a Steam sale- It’s kind of an interesting game, so I thought I’d put a blurb about it here. To summarize in as few word as possible: Sequence : Dance Dance Revolution :: Puzzle Quest : Bejeweled.

Sequence follows the tale of an obnoxious, sarcastic hipster who’s awoken at the bottom of a tower and needs to fight his way to the top, guided by an equally obnoxious, equally sarcastic hipster speaking to him over a loudspeaker. The game’s website and promotional blurbs make a big deal of the game’s voice acting, although I’m not entirely sure why- it’s not particularly good, and I would have very gladly given it up for a smaller download.

Most of the game really just amounts to a framework to propel you through a series of combats- you’re required to grind for items on each floor to make a key to reach the next, in addition to any equipment or spells you want to create. Combat itself is played on three fields of falling arrows, similar to Dance Dance Revolution’s playfield- tapping a corresponding key as arrows hit the bottom of the field ‘collects’ it. You can can switch between the three fields- ‘attack’, ‘defense’, and ‘mana’- at will. The mana field has a series of arrows falling constantly- collecting these allows you to regenerate mana. Casting any of your available spells to attack costs mana and creates a series of arrows on the ‘attack’ field; all of these need to be collected for the spell to take effect. Finally, monsters attack by creating arrows on your ‘defense’ field; these cause damage if they reach the bottom of the field, but you can collect them to prevent that.

It’s pretty intuitive in practice, and I enjoyed the two hours or so that I played even as someone who’s not a big rhythm-game fan. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of different songs (Offhand, I think I only saw four), and I fear that the game may get repetitive at the higher floors, but I think it was still worth buying. The sale I picked it up from is over, but it’s full price is still only $5- if you’re into rhythm games or RPG hybrids, it’s definitely worth a try. It’s available on both both Steam and XBLA.

- HC

I’ve recently been playing through this charming RPG on my commute, and I thought I should post and talk about it a little.

Dragon Fantasy is a fairly straightforward RPG, reminiscent of the early Dragon Quest games- it’s divided into a number of chapters, in which you’ll explore dungeons, fight monsters, and battle the forces of evil. The whole thing is done in an NES-ish style; it’s got pretty nice, albeit chunky and low-res, graphics and sound. The game is intentionally humorous and lighthearted, and it’s pretty well-written for what it is… While I’m generally not a fan of pop-culture humor, Dragon Fantasy pulls it off in a way that’s at least low-key and inoffensive. They’ve taken the time to include unique descriptions for each enemy’s attacks, appearance, and death- it gives them a lot more personality than most generic RPG monsters, which is a big plus.

Three chapters have been released so far- the first, and longest, chapter follows Ogden, a retired knight, as he leaves retirement to save a prince captured by the forces of evil. This chapter is the most straightforward, and has the most basic gameplay- Ogden is your only character, and he never encounters more than one enemy at a time. The chapter is pretty clearly modeled after the original Dragon Quest, although it’s a bit more linear- Ogden himself even shares most of the abilities of Dragon Quest’s hero. The second chapter is the shortest; it puts you in control of a mage-type hero and adds a second party member and monsters with elemental weaknesses to the mix, although you’ll still only be encountering one enemy at a time. It’s a bit frustrating at times; you don’t have a lot of margin for error with your relatively frail hero, particularly when you’re required to run a sizable dungeon on your own. It’s not the game’s high point, but it doesn’t drag too long.

The third chapter is the most interesting- it stars a thief and his niece. Your ultimate goal is to amass a pile of money through a number of subquests. This chapter adds a few interesting quirks… You can pickpocket NPCs, which is something I haven’t seen in a Final Fantasy-style RPG before, even if it’s more gimmicky than practical. Secondly, your party doesn’t have a dedicated healer- you’re largely dependent on items stolen from enemies to recover your health. Combined with the addition of muliple enemies in combat, it makes for more tactically interesting combat than the Fight-Fight-Heal-Repeat rhythm of the previous chapters. The third chapter ends with a lead-in to at least a fourth, but it hasn’t been released yet.

I’ve been enjoying the game a lot on my commute, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter. I heartily recommend it if you’re interested in a pocket-sized RPG in the faux-NES style. I’ve been playing the iOS version, but there are PC and Mac ports as well. Although there’s no demo, the full game only costs a dollar.

- HC

I thought I’d finally kicked this thing, I really did. I’d been clean for a couple months. The other day, though, I happened to see someone playing it on the Commuter Rail- “Hey,” I foolishly thought to myself, “it’s been a while since I played that- I should give it another try!” Three days later, I was trying to figure out whether a Changeling Raider with Enchant would be better than a Halfling and trying to break 700 turns on Normal.

Dungeon Raid for the iDevices, like its cousins in the Puzzle Quest series, is a combination match-three game and RPG. Where most of the variants of Puzzle Quest are centered on a story, however, Dungeon Raid is simply a run for high score.

The puzzle portion of Dungeon Raid is fairly standard- you’re looking at a grid of tiles of five basic types: swords, skulls, potions, shields, and coins. Tracing a path through a series of three or more adjacent tiles collects them; the types have different effects. Skulls represent monsters; these have life totals and hurt you every turn that they’re on the board. Tracing a path through skulls damages them; tracing a path through both skulls and swords damages them a lot more. Collecting potions restores your life; shields repair and upgrade your armor; coins are used to buy better equipment. You’ll occasionally see much tougher ‘special’ skulls as well- these typically have some sort of special effect and are also much hardier and stronger than normal skulls.

The RPG portion is where the game gets interesting- as you defeat monsters and collect gold and shields, you’ll level up and earn upgrades to your weapons and armor, given in the form of a random selection of three or four potential upgrades. Defeating monsters gives you experience, which makes your character earn levels- in addition to increasing your statistics, this gives you the opportunity to learn ‘skills’, which can be used to trigger special effects. There’s a pretty wide variety of skills with a decent range of effects- each time your character gains enough experience to level up, you’ll get two of these at random. At the beginning of the game, you’re prompted to pick a race and class- each race has a unique ability, and each class has a unique skill (which is very likely to be offered to you at level-up).

Although it probably sounds pretty basic from the description, I’ve found that the resource-management aspect of the game is tremendous fun, and it’s what keeps me coming back for more- what skills do I want to focus on first? Is gaining levels to earn skills more important, or should I focus on the often-unique abilities that equipment upgrades grant me? Which race-and-class combination is the best?

My only real complaint about the game is that the method for unlocking and leveling up classes is atrociously slow- I hate to say it, but it feels a bit like it was tacked on to encourage people to play longer. Older versions didn’t have a race/class selection; honestly, I think it may have been better that way.

All that being said, it’s great fun and hazardously addictive- last I checked, it was only $3 on the app store, and it’s well worth your time.

- HC

This morning for some reason I was thinking about “Hungry Are the Dead”, this groovy little indie turn-based survival horror Gameboy Color (yes) game. Most of the links for it are dead, but I was able to track down a copy on the website of one of the creators here. So, grab a Gameboy emulator and check it out.

I was kinda hoping that they’d turned it into a full game, perhaps for Android or something, but alas it is still just the GBC demo. But it’s a really cool GBC demo.

CHORUS:
I see you playin’ Angry Birds on your mobile phone,
and I’m like, Wii U! (Ooh ooh ooh!)
I guess Animal Crossing wasn’t casual enough,
and I’m like Wii U, and Wii Farmville too!

I said the bluer waters were full of dollars,
Heh, and it was true. (Yeah, it was true!)
But Apple went there too and now the water’s not blue,
so, Wii U!

Yeah I’m sorry, I can’t track your whole body,
but I can tell how much you weigh!
What’s so great about Xbox? It just emulates Atari,
while we’ve got all the classic games!

From back in the daaaay, we made stuff you’d want to play,
(Where’s Earthbound and Terranigma? Please let us know, Iwata!)
Heeeeey, they might show up some day.
(Go and post that on your rumor blog.)

[CHORUS]

Now I know, good games are a no-show,
among the fitness apps and shovelware,
but here’s a new Zelda! and a new Mario!
There, that should hold you for a year.

And now there’s a neeeewww way, to repackage our old games!
(The fifth remake of Ocarina! This time with a touchscreen-a!)
Yaaaay, and no easy way to pay!
(Why do we need your county anyway?)

[CHORUS]

Now baby baby baby, we don’t really mean to hurt you so bad,
(so bad, so bad, so baaad!)
We made Wii Fit for your mom and Big Brain Academy for your dad!
(your dad, your dad, your daaad!)
And we’re like uh… wait! Uh, wait! Uh, WAIT! Gamers!
We love you! We still love yooou!

[CHORUS]

I wrote an article on crowdfunding options for video game projects for Gamasutra. Check it out!

/This one snuck by me until now, but Square-Enix has released an iPhone port of the 2006 DS remake of Final Fantasy 3. To some extent, it’s hip to bag on Square for the number of ports and remakes they make; I’m not unsympathetic to this and it certainly feels like they release a port of the original Final Fantasy about every 18 months. This one I’m glad to see, though- It’s a game that’s only seen a handful of releases, the last one of which was in ’06.

(five years? Already? Man, I feel old )

Final Fantasy 3- the Japanese version, not the “Final Fantasy 3″ released on the Super Nintendo here in the states- is sort of an interesting game. The NES version was an unapologetically difficult NES-style level grind, with an early class system layered on top of an improved version of the original Final Fantasy’s battle system. I don’t think I’m going on too much of a limb when I call it one of the best of the grindy, NES-and-early-SNES-era RPGs- it represents an improvement of leaps and bounds over the earlier Final Fantasy games and even compares well against then-competitor Dragon Warrior 3. Unlike the earlier games in the series, it was never ported out of Japan until the recent remake- at the time of the NES game’s release, Nintendo was pushing developers to the Super Nintendo.

The recent DS port was a polished effort which retained a lot of what made the original cool, although with prettier graphics and a somewhat reduced difficulty level. I was honestly a bit disappointed by the latter. Finishing the original was a Herculean task, which required careful planning and foresight- finishing the remake, well, it was a hard RPG in the era it was released, but nowhere near as punishingly difficult of the original.

From the screenshots, it looks like the new iPhone version’s graphics are mostly recycled from the DS port but with higher-resolution textures. Square claims that there have been “new story elements” added, but I’m not sure what that actually amounts to- likely not much given the previous port, which added like one line of dialog per character. At $15, it’s also pretty pricey for an iPhone game.

It’s kind of interesting to see Square testing the water on the iDevices. The zeitgeist seems to be that the iPhone is an up-and-coming gaming platform, although I haven’t seen much in the realm of “serious” games for it; because of the nature of a mobile phone as a gaming platform, games that do well seem to be of the pick-it-up-for-10-minutes variety. Square’s published a couple ports and Final Fantasy-themed tower defense games, but only one “real” game- the mediocre Chaos Rings. I’m wondering if Square’s trying to position themselves to move onto the platform or build up a stock of knowledgeable development teams with these ports.

I kind of wish that Square would get around to paying attention to some of the non-FF games in their old catalog- I think that something in the vein of the Romancing SaGa games, with their reliance on lots of subquests and optional material, would be really well-suited for a mobile phone platform. Sometimes it feels like even Square’s executives have forgotten that there was a time when they were Lucasarts circa 1993 and not Lucasarts circa 2004.

- HC

I’ve decided to fund my next video game project through Kickstarter. Come check it out, won’t you??