Last Game You Finished and Your Thoughts MKII

Recently broke my - no games before the switch - to pick up a Humble Bundle which featured a good mix of games I've been interested in for a while.

Mini Metro was one of those games, a puzzle type game which challenges players to create their own metro systems. The scenarios are all based on real places, with London being the OG station of course.

There's no tutorial, but the design is really intuitive. You start with 3 stations, a Circle, a square, a triangle, and you can create 3 unique tracks, or, lines out of the box. Because of the bold color scheme, you quickly pick up that if a little triangle turns up at a square station, that fella wants to go strawberry to a square station....

It all starts off easy enough, but over time new stations pop up (sometimes in new shapes too), and an exponentially increasing number of passengers populated each station. Every Sunday brings a new train and a random set of upgrades - either a new line, or extra carriages, or tunnels/bridges (shit, yeah you only have a set number of those to go over water or whatever so there's always some strategy between picking a new line, carriage, or tunnel/bridge), but eventually those won't be enough and an awkward concentration of circle stations normally does me in.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool little game and trying to beat old scores is alright. It's a little bit luck based, new stations pop up at a given rate but not always in the same place, but there's a skill to it and I've been getting better over time. I think this is only on PC, but it would make for a pretty good handheld game so if it ever comes to the Switch it's worth considering, for like a tenner.

7 Overcrowded Stations out of 10 Trains arriving simultaneously.

I was really tempted to pick this up - I thought it was only a mobile game! More tempted now you mention it's on PC. I have a weird fascination with train lines.


Also

Muss wrote:

that fella wants to go strawberry to a square station....

Jimbob wrote:

Also

Muss wrote:

that fella wants to go strawberry to a square station....

What a coincidence! I've not long watched the ep of mock the week that mentions this.

Is this a steam game, Muss? If so, I'll fire up your copy

It's a twofer!

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth



A Cappa recommendation, it's a throwback to an earlier era of gaming, as its bizarrely capitalised title might suggest. That brings with it a strange stiffness in the player character's movement and the kind of bizarre but brilliant tunes that littered Konami and Capcom games of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras (this one, the second level, my favourite) and a linearity that makes me think the 'vania' in 'Metroidvania' is misplaced (close that can of worms, Zero!). It's good fun but did get frustrating in later levels as health pickups are rarer than sensible tweets from Donald Trump.

14/20

Fire Emblem Heroes



Nintendo's best attempt at a mobile game yet. It's up to you to decide if that's a good or a bad thing but I mostly enjoyed my time with the game. Issues include how much more straightforward things get when you have a 5-star character or two at your disposal, and that the difficulty curve swings wildly away from the player at some point in Chapter 7. Them aside, the stripped back nature of the game compared to the real thing provides a great entry point for stratn00bs like myself. It's also gloriously presented, though the thin story tails off worryingly by the end. Still, free fun! Can't be bad.

15/20

ZeroJones wrote:

Still, free fun! Can't be bad.

(it's not very good)

I imagine that a non-mobile Fire Emblem game is better... but it is an alright mobile game, and I will hold to that.

I gave it a 8 as for a free mobile game that I didn't have to put a penny into to finish, that is worth a 8 against its peers.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Is this a steam game, Muss?

Yes

@Jimbob: There's definitely something oddly pleasing about watching the little trains zip around the place.

@Fire Emblem Heroes:

You're alright, but I wish the difference between star_levels wasn't so bloody large. I might've got unlucky with his level ups, but towards the end of the game my 4* Cain is essentially a meatshield for the two fivers on my team. Your balancing is kind of wacked, mate, but I suppose yer alright for an introduction to the series and you don't keep clamering for my attention by making my phone vibrate all over the show whenever the stamina has recharged.

Also you make funny noises if I keep tapping on my heroes in some of the screens, more of this please.

Letter Quest Remastered



Well, that was quick. I did get addicted, though, and as a part linguist, I do love words. Your ability to make words that fulfil criteria like 'must use four letters or more' or 'make words with double letters, like 'BUBBLE'' will enhance your attacks on your vicious foes on your avatar's quest for pizza (which I fully endorse, by the way). It's charming and stretches the idea to its fullest, with a massive series of achievements, upgrades and level criteria to go at. For the price of a cinema ticket (and probably cheaper on all other formats ), it's done its job.

15/20

Interesting that you whizzed through it Zero. I finished this last week (check previous page) and sunk a good month in to it - found it horribly addicting.

I saw that - it was you that put me onto it! I have about half the stars and only a handful of the upgrades, so there's plenty more to go at... but I should really be sinking my time into DQVII now.

ZeroJones wrote:

I saw that - it was you that put me onto it! I have about half the stars and only a handful of the upgrades, so there's plenty more to go at... but I should really be sinking my time into DQVII now.

Good to hear. I managed to get all the stars and all the upgrades, but it was a game I'd play for an hour most evenings. Along with Steamworld Dig, it's really opened my eyes to the cheaper downloadable games and thankfully the PS4 gives me a couple of free ones to play each month. Currently playing The Deadly Tower of Monsters and enjoying it

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

So while y'all are banging on about Breath of the Wild, I went and completed my first Zelda game. Traditionally, ol' Jonesy boy here has struggled with Zelda as a franchise - mostly because I get stuck not on puzzles but on where to go next. I've tried Link's Awakening, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, but they all ultimately drove me away when I returned to them. Scullion recently cited "Ocarina Syndrome" in his BOTW review and that's an accurate feeling I've felt with all Zeldas. Twilight Princess also suffers from Ocarina Syndrome, but it's not helped by how I played it.

I started Twilight Princess in 2011 and got through most of it in short bursts of play. It's probably the worst way to play Zelda as it's not really a play for 1 hour game, more of a 2/3 hour sesh game. It's why I sunk 82 hrs in to it. Nonetheless, ten years after most folk beat it, I found it a wonderful game that encapsulates everything I love about that gen of games. It may not look much on a hd tv but the washed out aesthetic accurately represents the soul sapping atmosphere Ganondirf/Zant have put Hyrule under. The subtle music is excellent. The dungeon designs are impeccable. The weapons are great and well utilised. I really, really liked it.

What I didn't like was the hollow, lifeless overworld. And that's about it really. I'm tempted to start over again, but think I'll move on to either Skyward Sword or Wind Waker (or try and finish Ocarina of Time). Would be nice to beat another one before I end up joining the Switch parade.

9.5/10

Glad you enjoyed it! Twilight Princess was the first Zelda I completed, back when it launched on Wii. I've since gone to play through, and thoroughly enjoy, most of them but courses for horses and all that.

I'd recommend Skyward Sword personally, and not just because it's my favourite*. I've said a few times that the two Wii Zeldas complement one another perfectly, each one succeeding where the other fails.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Glad you enjoyed it! Twilight Princess was the first Zelda I completed, back when it launched on Wii. I've since gone to play through, and thoroughly enjoy, most of them but courses for horses and all that.

I'd recommend Skyward Sword personally, and not just because it's my favourite*. I've said a few times that the two Wii Zeldas complement one another perfectly, each one succeeding where the other fails.

Skyward Sword is the most likely as a work colleague said he'd lend me it. Quite looking forward to the colourful world of SS as Twilight Princess was very dreary. I've also got a bit more of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and am approximately halfway through Xenoblade Chronicles, so 2017 may well be the year I put the best of the best, to the sword.

And that's a wrap on Last Game MKII! Catch all o'y'all on the flipside of the credits.