May 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion
The blaze has officially ignited!
The May 2025 Backlog Burner is officially live. Use this topic to post about the games that you play.
Quicklink: Backlog Bingo
Etiquette:
-
It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week.
-
It is also fine to respond to your own posts.
-
If you are playing Backlog Bingo, you can share your table either by markdown or through screenshots.
Gameplay guidelines:
-
Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.
-
Playing Bingo is optional and not required.
-
You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.
Backlog Burner FAQ
What exactly is the Backlog Burner?
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences, scratch some long-standing itches, and knock a few titles off our to-play lists.
It runs every May and November. New discussion topics will go up once a week during those months.
You do not need to sign up in advance -- the topics are open to all. If you would like to be included in the notification list, comment in this topic to be added.
How do I participate?
- Choose some games from your backlog and play them.
- Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week.
That's it!
Optionally: you can play Backlog Bingo which is a fun way of cutting down the choices you have to make and playing games you might not have normally selected on your own.
Do I need to finish the games that I play?
Nope! Not at all.
There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game.
Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
Can I make multiple posts in the same topic?
Yes! Each discussion thread stays live for a full week, so feel free to make multiple comments in the topic as you play different games. This isn't considered noise -- it's considered valuable participation in the event!
Backlog Bingo FAQ
Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.
I'm a returning player. How do I reset my previous card?
If you've already created a card and wish to start over, click the Settings button in the header to access your card settings. Then click the Reset button, and confirm the prompt. This will irrevocably delete your present card, allowing you to start fresh.
Where is my data stored?
All data is stored by your browser in local storage. There are no accounts, and nothing is sent to the server, so it's privacy-friendly by design. This does mean that you are responsible for not deleting any browser data on wescook.ca, either manually or through automatic cleanups performed on browser close.
Backlog Bingo is open-source, and licensed permissively under MIT.
What is the difference between the "Standard" and "Golf" modes?
In Standard Mode, each square on the bingo card corresponds with one single game. Duplicate games cannot be entered into different squares. A winning card would have a row of five different games that each filled in one square.
In Golf Mode, duplicates are not only allowed -- they are encouraged! The purpose of Golf mode is to try to find a single game that will fill multiple categories at the same time. For example: Stardew Valley might fulfill You got it on sale, A solo-dev project, and Has romanceable characters all at the same time. A winning card would have all twenty five squares filled, but possibly only six or seven different games.
What is the star space in the middle?
That is the "wildcard" or "free space."
In Standard Mode, there are no requirements to fill it. You can choose any game you want! Anything goes!
In Golf Mode, it does not need to be filled. Because Golf is all about stacking up categories on a single game, any game used in Golf would fill it automatically, meaning it has no real function. As such, the square will be pre-filled for you if you play in Golf mode.
The new Free list defaults to having this space turned off. Because you already have full freedom in how you fill the squares, having a free space is redundant (though if you miss it or just like the aesthetics, you can certainly turn it back on!).
Can I create custom bingo categories for this, or other events?
Absolutely! The Backlog Bingo app reads in simple JSON files which define the available categories. We've created a couple prebuilt lists for this event, but you're free to tweak our categories, or create completely new ones. You could even use them for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!
If you are interested in learning more, you can find documentation on the wiki, and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!
Here's my Bingo Card: the Flow list with default settings, generated with the seed
Join me for a playdate!Abundance✅ Cranky Cove
Friction✅ Trackminia
Color✅ Match-o-3000
Brief✅ The Botanist
My goal is to play mostly Playdate games, but I might sneak in a few Steam games as well. I'm going for a single bingo, but a blackout is a nice stretch goal. I'm also just now realizing that the Playdate is great for going for a blackout because its games tend to be shorter, which will let me get through more of them.
I'm charging and updating my Playdate right now so that it'll be ready to go for tomorrow (when it's actually May 1st for me — the US is quite literally behind the times).
I'm excited to hear other people's plans, and I'm especially excited to read everyone's writeups! My favorite part of Backlog Burner is getting insights into games through other people's eyes.
Cranky Cove - Abundance
I didn't intend to start at the top left! It was just a happy accident.
I chose this game at random, but it turns out that it works quite perfectly for "Abundance."
In the game there are three concentric rings. The first (innermost) ring has your workers. The second ring has your tools. And the third (outermost) ring has resources.
You switch which ring is active with the d-pad, and you spin the active ring with the crank. By lining up three specific items, you can create a new resource. For example, if you do
Fisherman+Hook+Worm, you'll catch a fish. This uses up the worker and the tool in the first and second rings, and it replaces theWormwithFishin the outer ring.Why are you making these things? Well, villagers want certain things! They will walk up to a position on the outer ring and request a specific item. You then have to line up things correctly in order to get them the item they desire.
At the beginning of the game, there are a limited number of things that you can make, with everything serving a single function. As you progress, however, the game adds complexity. For example, pretty early on, you will unlock the ability to make sushi. In order to do this, you have to use the
Fisherman+Hook+Wormcombo to makeFish, and then you have to doChef+Knife+Fishto get sushi. The game starts adding more potential combinations, giving each worker, tool, and resource more than one use.What this means is that, as you're trying to create a specific match in one part of the board, you'll invariably make matches you weren't intending to make on other parts of the board because you're moving all of the items in a ring every time you make a move. This ends up being pretty cool and makes the game feel less rote. It adds a bit of frantic chaos to the game, as well as making your life easier. A villager might be requesting sushi, and you start to look for the fisherman, only to realize that you already have a fish caught that you didn't even know you had, for example.
Each level requires you to make a specific number of villagers happy by giving them their desired items within the time limit. Do this, and you'll advance to the next level, which adds new workers, tools, resources, or combinations to the mix.
The best way I can describe what it feels like to play the game is that it's like a match-3 combination lock. You're frantically switching between rings, spinning them around, trying to deliver something to a customer, all while others are lining up elsewhere. Classic time pressure.
I chose "Abundance" for the game because it's continually supplying you with stuff. As you (intentionally or accidentally) create matches, it fills them in with new workers, tools, and resources. The difficulty of the game isn't that it doesn't give you what you need -- it's that to get what you need you have to strategically line things up across three different rings (and quickly!).
I didn't make it very far in the game before failing out of a level. I got tilted way too easily, stressing out about missing a delivery and then letting that failure cascade from there. I'm going to have to keep playing the game to build my skills in it. I imagine it will be very satisfying to play once I get good at it. It feels like a Playdate version of Cook, Serve, Delicious!, and I loved how good it felt to get that game under my fingers and fly through orders.
Also, playing this game helped me realize that, if I'm going to properly enjoy my Playdate, I'm going to need some ergonomic enhancements. I have gigantic hands and the Playdate is so itsy bitsy teeny tiny that I easily get hand cramps or fumble inputs. As such, I paused playing this game so that I could order a big grip for it, as well as a dial that fits over the crank to make it easier to play (I'm not adding to my backlog if I'm buying new accessories instead of games, right? 😆). While I was at it, I also ordered a reading light to make up for the fact that it doesn't have a backlit screen (my one major complaint about the device).
Rather than play straight through this one, I'm probably going to come back to it over time. I honestly expect a lot of the Playdate games to be like that: ones that are meant to be dabbled in for short periods of time instead of taken from start to finish on their own.
Great first entry to kick us off! I find the Playdate conceptually very interesting, so I'm looking forward to learning more about how these Playdate games are actually, you know, played.
This already seems like a really good use of the crank due to its tactile feedback. I don't know if the workers/tools/resources are cycling in and out, or if just the tasks change, but if things persist then I would guess that you could build a very strong intuition for where everything is just by feel. In the same way you have a sense for how rotated your car's steering wheel is, the crank here could create a strong physical association for where each node is.
Looking forward to seeing what other novel uses for the crank there are. Hopefully the new grip comes in time to still make good use of it for this event.
Alternatively, you can stream your Playdate gameplay to a larger and lit display by plugging the device into the desktop/laptop that's going to run Mirror, and play it with a mouse and/or controller. The only drawback is that you won't fully experience the tactile feel the crank would provide if you don't use Playdate's physical buttons.
Wait, WHAT?!
How did I not know about this?!
This is genuinely incredible. Thank you so much! My Playdate is now backlit, with a much larger screen, which is great for my aging eyes. I had no idea this existed and it's a literal game changer for me. You just tripled my excitement for playing my backlog games this month (and that excitement was already pretty high!).
Match-o-3000 - Color
PLEASE SEND HELP I CANT STOP PLAYING THIS BALATRO-STYLE MATCH 3 GAME ITS SO ADDICTIVE
Now Kefir, you might be saying to yourself, why are you yelling? And how are you so distraught that you put a monochromatic game down for your
Colorsquare?ITS BECAUSE I DONT FEEL LIKE DOING A SERIOUS WRITEUP BECAUSE ID RATHER BE PLAYING THE GAME THAN TALKING ABOUT IT THIS IS URGENT YOU DONT UNDERSTAND I JUST NEED TO DO ONE MORE RUN
Okay Kefir, you think, trying to understand, that explains the yelling, but what about the color?
MY BRAIN HAS PLAYED SO MUCH MATCH 3 IN ITS TIME THAT IT WAS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON COLOR TO READ THE BOARD SO I HAD TO RE-LEARN HOW TO PLAY MONOCHROME MATCH 3
So, you're choosing "color" for a "colorless" game because... you gather your thoughts, ...the absence of color was a constant reminder of what was missing?
YES EXACTLY NOW LET ME GET BACK TO THE GAME IVE ALMOST HIT 3,000,000 POINTS AND I WANT TO STOMP THE FINAL BOSS
Okay Kefir, you think, good luck with this one.
I DONT NEED LUCK I JUST NEED THE RIGHT ITEM COMBINATION AND THE GAME WONT GIIIIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEE WHYYYYY
Maybe you'll get it on the next run, Kefir, you tease. How about another run? Just one more? You're sure to get it this time.
ONE MORE RUN
WAIT
WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON HERE
The logic for choosing colors seems sound to me, not sure how many other Playdate games could fit that. I wish you the best of luck in beating that boss!
Though given the fact the scoreboard indicates the existence of an endless mode... Well, good luck putting this one down?
It lets you do endless if you stomp the final boss (WHICH I DID).
Except, the final boss has a score of 3,000,000, but there's an item unlock for getting a score over 2,147,483,647. My previous build was pretty much unstoppable, but I was still only scoring in the millions each move, so I've got a long way to climb. I don't mind though because the game is so fun!
I'm actually kind of mad (but not really) that I hit a jackpot like this so early in the event. It's going to put a damper on me playing other games!
I think I understand about hitting the jackpot early. I really enjoyed my first game, and I'm having a hard time getting into the other ones that I have selected, especially since the game I was playing right before my first game was Stardew Valley, which is also very good.
Kind of feeling like I've shot myself in the foot here a bit!
I mean, can we even call this a Backlog Burner if we aren’t playing 10 different games for 30 minutes each, none of which really grip us that much?
This whole “quality” thing where we “enjoy” what we’re playing and want to stick with a “good” game that “enriches” us or lets us have “fun” is just, you know, SO disappointing. It’s completely against the spirit of the event! 😂
The Botanist - Brief
Turns out this isn't a game so much as it is a visual novel, though calling it a visual novel isn't even really accurate either. It's more like a digital comic. It's told almost entirely through images with very few words.
Instead of just clicking to advance different scenes, you actually scroll through most of them. The scrolling has a parallax effect that gives each scene depth, which takes the visuals to a level of quality above what you'd expect from a low-res monochromatic device.
Scrolling is usually left to right, but at other times changes directions to suit the particular scene. At other points, you'll use inputs to advance, corresponding with specific tasks on the screen. I actually got stuck on one screen that I thought was glitching out, until I remembered that the device also supports tilt controls.
The story isn't anything too noteworthy -- you're an astronaut botanist tasked with locating a specific plant when things go wrong. It took me maybe 15 minutes total (hence the "brief" category). What makes it really noteworthy is the presentation: it feels like a kids' book come to life. The illustration choices are bold, and the depth effect gives it a panache that it wouldn't have with just static images.
I don't know that I'd give it a full recommendation as I didn't personally enjoy it too much, but I will admit that it's very impressive. I honestly feel like it would be best served as being "built-in" to the device, available for any Playdate player to play through, as a way of tacitly showing off the device's features and capabilities. It would be great at being the Playdate version of Aperture Desk Job.
Trackminia - Friction
I'm continually impressed by what people are able to do with the Playdate.
It's not that the game is 3D, though that's an admittedly cool thing to see on such a low-res, monochromatic screen.
It's that the game is able to be so good and so minimalistic at the same time. This is a lane I feel like Playdate games do particularly well. The constraints of the system end up being a great asset in terms of design and execution.
Like any racing game, you use the d-pad to steer,
Ato accelerate, andBto brake. Pretty standard. What's novel is that you initiate a drift simply by lifting off of the accelerator, and you can exit a drift by pressing it again and accelerating. It's basically a one-button game.The tracks are also suitably minimal. Gradual curves and straightaways, with occasional turbo pads or obstacles. Anything more detailed would get lost on the screen, which has a constant grainy effect that's maybe a touch too heavy for my liking but that does make the game look more detailed than it actually is.
The game is all about maintaining speed and keeping smooth drifts. In that regard, it's essentially a friction management game. Early on I was hitting walls pretty frequently and having to restart a lot, but once I got the feel for drifting under my fingers, it started to feel really good. There are medals for each track, and you can race against your ghosts, trying to shave seconds or milliseconds off of your times, so it's a time-trial racing game that's all about repeating tracks over and over again to optimize them (just like its namesake).
Speaking of which, its name is an obvious nod to Trackmania which is known for its custom courses. Sure enough, those exist in the game too! You can hook your Playdate up to a computer and download courses to it. It gave me the same feel as when I used to hook up my old TI-83 calculator to put games on it. The Playdate and its games do such a good job of merging modern concepts with retro execution.
Unfortunately, when I went to the site to do it, I was given about a dozen different options of things to connect to (all starting with "tty"), none of which looked like my Playdate, and I didn't want to just randomly choose one and see what happens. So, I didn't get to try out that feature, but it's pretty cool that it exists in the first place.
Also, I had originally started playing it on the handheld, but then switched to playing it on my laptop via the Mirror app that @J-Chiptunator clued me in to. The other games I've been juggling (writeups pending!) have all benefitted from the larger screen, but this one actually got diminished. The textured effect on the screen looks much better when it's shrunk down. When blown up, it's honestly pretty ugly (which is not a criticism of the game -- it's simply designed to be played on a ~2 inch screen rather than a 17 inch one.
Anyway, it's kind of wild to me that a racing game can feel good on a device with such strong limitations like this, but the dev really pulled it off. I'm going to get a lot of play out of this one, only I'm going to be doing it on the handheld itself, and not on my computer via Mirror.
I love the idea of demakes, and implementing newer game ideas on older (or less-powerful) hardware, so I was excited to check this one out. The gif preview on the page does almost look more like Outrun than Trackmania, though. Maybe the pun in the name was just too good to pass up.
I'm curious, does the crank factor into play at all? I'm trying to imagine it being used as a steering wheel, gear shift, or some other input device. Maybe it just rolls down the window?
I guess it's okay if every game doesn't use the crank for something, but I'm here to read about gimmicks, dang it!
So, it’s not on by default, but in proper Playdate style, you can activate crank controls for steering!
The crank being up is neutral. Turn it away quarter turn away from you for left, and a quarter turn towards you for right.
It is VERY difficult (but delightfully janky). I had trouble passing a relatively simple track with it on. It basically QWOPifies the game.
Impressively, the game gives you lots of customization for the crank controls. You can change a lot of things like dead zones and whatnot.
I generated a Flux bingo card just to see what gets scratched off, but I intend to pick a game out of the following list based on vibes or wheel spin.
backlog items on the "i really want to play this in 2025" list in purchased order
Erenshor (thanks to it being mentioned on Tildes recently!)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (also Tildes mention)
Project Zomboid
Fields of Mistria
Resident Evil 4
Machinarium
Disco Elysium
Control
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
Dredge
Pathologic 2
Tamashii
Heaven Will Be Mine
Yuppie Psycho
System Shock 2 (original)
Outer Wilds (I am not blind to the core mechanic, but otherwise know nothing about the game)
Buddy Simulator 1984
Hotline Miami 1/2
What Remains of Edith Finch
Pinging all Backlog Burner participants/conversationalists: the event has begun!
Notification List
@1338
@Aran
@CannibalisticApple
@Durinthal
@Eidolon
@J-Chiptunator
@nullbuilt
@SingedFrostLantern
@sparksbet
@Pistos
@Wes
If you would like to be removed from/added to the list, let me know either here or by PM.
As requested: @WiseassWolfOfYoitsu
I'm in! Sorry for not posting before, @kfwyre please feel free to add me to the ping list.
My card:
No worries at all! I’ve added you to the ping list.
Also, just so it’s clear to everyone else: you did NOT need to sign up in advance in the announcement topic. People are free to jump in to the event however and whenever they like!
The Farmer was Replaced - Recursion. This is a game that implements a basic python interpreter, and to play you write programs for your drone to harvest an NxN size farm with various crops. Some crops want to be next to others of the same type, some want more space, some give you a little mini-game to play, and you can unlock more of the language, and more crops, by using the crops that you harvest. I think that this would be a very good game to teach someone the basics of programming. I found it to be pretty cute, and I also found it somewhat refreshing to have to implement some things without the niceties of a modern language. Sorting a 2d array, for example, was a throwback to university for me, and programming the dinosaur game (which is just an implementation of snake game) was also fun. I have one more crop to figure out - there's one that implements a maze. Overall, this is a decent way to spend a couple of hours, and I'm recommending to my kids that they give it a shot as well, as they're both interested in coding.
This is cool! There's a handful of programming games out there (the first I played was Colobot decades ago), but they all approach scripting in different ways. This one looks like it has more of a focus on idle game mechanics, which actually meshes very well with scripting.
The reviews are also interesting. Some find it to be too easy, while others claim it's impossible. Guess it's tough to onboard people without some amount of prior experience.
I think that the people who find it impossible are probably not coders at all; almost everything is fairly rudimentary. I did have a bit of a stumble when I was thinking of sorting algorithms when all you can do is swap in either direction, but by the very nature of only being able to swap to the elements next door it leads you to a particular way to sort. I also decided to leave my snake implementation relatively unoptimized - I just went for a solution that pathed through each square once, instead of really thinking of a way to solve playing snake.
The best bit was probably solving the maze, but I had actually written a maze generating bit of code, which included a simple maze solver (always go left). That one might have taken a bit more time if I hadn't somewhat recently done it. None of the challenges are particularly difficult. There are certainly harder challenges in Human Resource Machine, which is another "learn the basics of programming" game that is maybe a bit cuter, but a bit less directly writing code.
Idle mechanics do map exceptionally well to scripting. Overall, it's a great intro to python programming.
Dredge - Fleeting. Is it a fleet if there's just one boat? I briefly considered trying to make every single entry some kind of play on words, but that didn't really pan out. I could say "Dredge is a fishing game" but that seems wrong. It is a game in which you are a fisherman, and there is a fishing mini game, but it's about exploration, dread, loss, and the fleeting nature of life. In many ways it reminded me of Sunless Skies; it has similar controls, there are similar themes. The story is good, but short - after 9 hours of playtime, I had completed the main story. I will likely go back and do some more of the collection aspect of the game; there are fish I haven't seen, and places I haven't been. I may also consider getting the DLC. This one came in a Humble Choice and it made the month very well worth it.
Not sure if you did this on purpose or not, but if not, well, then we can just add it to our ever growing list of clone/doppleganger traits.
What am I talking about?
My first game from the last Backlog Bingo: a sailing game that filled the "Fleeting" square
I wasn't thinking of that comment when I wrote this, but my guess is that it was rattling around in my head since then, because I knew as soon as I saw "fleeting" that the game I chose would be boat related, and I looked for other wordplay related options.
<3
Suzerain - Balance. Suzerain is a game that is mostly text based where you have become the leader of a country in an alternate world, and you have to lead the country in a way that works for you. It is a delicate balancing act; it is easy to slip and be more authoritative than what your ideals state you should be. The gameplay is mostly done on the level of people interacting with you and you making policy (or personal) choices based on what they tell you. I haven't played for very long - under two hours - but I think this might be a game to savour and spend a good amount of time on. That said, I'm not sure that I'll be returning to this in the near future, mostly because I was starting to feel very stressed out by the politics of it. In gaming, there's also a balance - fun for the sake of fun, fun for learning, spending time well, etc. This one will go back on the shelf for a bit, to come out when times are happier.
Here's my card! This is the first time I participate in the event, but not the first time of feeling the necessity to reduce my backlog.
I have some ideas in mind already: I'm pretty sure I want to finish Tactical Breach Wizards and play Mars After Midnight on my Playdate. Let's see how these go!
Mars After Midnight is also on my list! Bought it upon release aaaaand… never played it. 😆
Alright, after thinking on it I'll go with the Flow rules this time. Fingers crossed it goes smoother than last time! (Last time I realized I somehow had like, zero games with aliens left in my intended backlog. And limited games with dungeons.)
Unlock✅ Theresia
Repetition✅ The Letter
Isolation✅ The Letter
Courage✅ Theresia
This time: we're moving like... Next week. So I've been going through old games for stuff to sell, and found some oldies but goodies. I've dug up my Wii and GameCube and confirmed both work! Or at least the Wii loads, didn't have a Wiimote to get beyond the health/warning screen. So, depending on how hectic our upcoming house move and its aftermath are, I might try to play those.
In the meantime, tonight I might play Nintendo Land one last time before factory resetting the Wii U. Just not sure if I should count that as part of the backlog since I didn't plan on it? Thoughts if I should? Though there's one other game I'll play on it tonight for sure which I'll count since I never finished it...
I long for the day where one of two things happens:
I don’t know which is less likely, but I think they’re both long shots.
I honestly don’t even need the full game (though there was admittedly a lot of cool stuff in there). I really just want to play that 2D Donkey Kong egg-drop game where you have to get your cart down a labyrinthine path safely.
As for whether you count it for your backlog? Well, given your card choice, I say go with the flow! Does it feel like something you should add on or not? Make the decision purely vibes-based.
That’s the fair answer. The biased answer is that I think more folks should be aware of the Wii U’s absolute best hidden gem, so any rep is good rep, and it should definitely go on your card because the people need to know!
Also, good luck with the move! I hope everything goes well for y’all.
Heh, funnily enough the Donkey Kong one was the exact one I had in mind! Ended up playing that one and a couple others last night before formatting it. Gave me a big appreciation for the design of Nintendo Land. It really showcases the Wii U's features well.
The Wii U was actually pretty well designed, I think it just suffered from bad marketing and being a bit too specialized. All the unique features made it trickier to develop for or port games compared to the Wii, where the motion if the Wiimote was the main gimmick. If this doesn't sell in the garage sale, I just might keep it!
except I plan to use the funds to buy Pokémon White off a friend and complete the gap in my collection, so... Hmm...Alright, I completed the first game! As I mentioned, I had to reformat my Wii U to sell last night, so first I wanted to complete one of the few games I had for it. Namely the one horror game I bought for it, and got too scared to finish. Yes...
The Letter!
"Why, Apple," you ask, "Isn't that game infamous for being super bad?"
Indeed it is, hypothetical reader! Why, a friend who didn't even own any Nintendo systems once mentioned it when talking about infamously bad games and then laughed when I mentioned I actually bought it!
"Isn't it infamous for nothing actually happening?"
Yep! Zero enemies in the whole game! Just spooky red eyes staring from the distance and a stuffed animal that whispers "help me" when you get close! The scariest part is the camera and controls!
"And a lame ending?"
Yes, one of the worst types of endings in all of fiction!
"And... you didn't finish it??"
Hahahahaha I am a coward and got scared by the red eyes.
So, last night I redeemed myself and finished it it!
The Letter is a short horror game where you play as a boy named Michael, who finds a letter from his dad that leads him to investigate his probable murder. And of course he does it at night, with no one else around. (Isolation!)
For those unaware, this game is infamous for... Well, for getting approved for the Wii U eshop. It's the first game by the studio, and it reminds me of games by inexperienced devs on itch.io. I'm surprised it got greenlit by Nintendo given that, as far as I know, they had no previous games. Playing it reminded me of my intro to game dev class. Mainly the weird scale for doors and buildings. Had to literally jump up some stairs because they were so tall.
With that in mind, I'm probably a lot more lenient than most of the professional critics from its release.
So! Onto my thoughts!
As said above, the scariest part was indeed the camera and controls. Because that camera was super sensitive to looking up. No joke, if I nudged the joystick even a little the camera would zip upwards. It took a while to just stop snapping my head back at a 90 degree angle to stare at the ceiling and/or sky. The movement meanwhile isn't the worst. Weirdly slow on stairs, but you can jump, yay!! But there are some platform-y bits.
Fun fact: you can die in this game by missing a jump and falling into some spikes. And there are a couple areas with narrow walkways where it's super easy to fall because it's so dang narrow. No spikes, but you still have to go back and start over. And that's why I marked off "repetition", because I had to redo a couple sections multiple times because I'd fall. I had to inch along the planks while staring down to make sure I moved in a straight line.
Turns out the real horror was getting on the planks.Overall though, the game is... Well, I can't say straightforward. It took me about an hour mainly because I was wandering for so dang long trying to find stuff on the second map. That map is big and you need to find multiple items, and there aren't really many landmarks or decent lighting so it's easy to get lost unless you hug rhe edges of the map. I actually looked up a video to try to help find some stuff (which did not help due to said lack of landmarks and lighting), and they found some building I never saw. Not even a vague distant outline. That video helped me find the key in the third map though, which was under a board and almost camouflaged against yellowish grass. No clue how long I would've looked for it.
That reminds me: for some reason, the second map has hidden letters 2 and 5 (which glow in the distance and are easily found)... And then 3 and 4 are on map three. All of which are signed by your father's full name, save for 4 which says (and I quote:) "I hope someone buys this place... -Some random guy." That one got a laugh out of me, given it was on the balcony of a house where there's a bathroom without a toilet.
There are also some hidden tapes, which... I have no idea how to use. You find them and a voice says "hidden tape found", aaaaand that's it. No explanation, no chance to use them that I know of. I found one in map two, and two in the third map? And never saw a TV or anything in the fourth map.
Which brings me to the ending! After waiting in the medical facility for a bit (there is a literal message on the wall saying "Wait for it..."), Michael blacks out and then...
It was all just a dream!
Yes, really. His dad never died in a mysterious conspiracy. Michael just fell asleep during a vacation to a deserted island with absolutely zero protection from the elements or even a dock. Just a cabana with a roof, two lounge chairs and a note signed by both of his parents (Taylor James + Marie Rose Kennedy, for the record) explaining they'd taken the boat to the mainland to get supplies.
Told you, one of the worst types of endings in fiction. There's a reason it has such an infamous reputation.
Still, the game wasn't too awful. Disappointing for horror fans, sure, but I'd say overall it was mediocre. Definitely the work of a new developer with limited experience, and hey, they did good with the spooky red eyes and audio cues! And waking up on a deserted vacation island was almost refreshing compared to the usual bleak endings in these games.
And as I stared at the sea from this empty, empty island where I had zero resources besides the clothes on my back, I had to wonder though...
What if Taylor James and Marie Rose Kennedy never came back?
Haha, I love the historical context leading up to the scary red eyes. Congrats on finally conquering this one!
I have to wonder how self-aware the developers were with the dream ending. The previous room telling you to "Wait for it..." definitely makes it sound like a setup for a joke. It's such a widely ridiculed and tropey ending, I feel like they had to be aware of it. It's like the equivalent of putting a Wilhelm scream in a modern movie. I hope they were aware, and those dismissing it as a terrible ending are just missing the joke!
I wonder if the tapes are just pickups (ala Secret Tapes in Tony Hawk games). It sort of fits into that retro handycam aesthetic, so that would make sense to me.
I'm glad you were able to finish it up before packing your Wii u off to find a better home. Good luck to those receiving The Letter! alongside it, and pray they don't meet the scary red eyes.
I wonder how aware they were too, especially with how the hidden letters were signed with the dad's full name and then the fourth was, literally, some random guy.
They probably are just pickups? As far as I could tell there was no way to track them though. I couldn't even open a menu (and I tried, to see if I could fix the camera sensitivity), and the main menu didn't mention them after I won. I guess it just feels weird since I'm used to secret tapes having lore because of more recent games.
Alas, the new owner won't be able to play it as the factory reset wipes everything.
...though if it doesn't sell, I just might finally transfer my Wii data over and sell that instead depending on what games are around for it. Which means I may have erased my beautiful, precious, lovely Miis for nothing.Started another game at last (we're so busy prepping for the move): Theresia, an obscure horror puzzle game for the DS. Found it on an article while trying to find gimmicky games similar to 999. Actually had to transfer the ROM manually because it wasn't on the Ghost Eshop, which is a testament to its obscurity.
And yes, I did mention I am a coward at horror games. However, that applies to time-sensitive threats. This one is more of a point-and-click adventure game, which I can handle. I'm still marking off "Courage" though, and also "Unlock" since the puzzles include multiple locked doors.
I'm half an hour in, and it's definitely atmospheric. Has a spooky skeleton hand for the interaction button. Also has traps, because I already died once. I have to move carefully, there are many traps trying to hurt me. Can't tell you much about the story, as our protagonist woke up with amnesia in some dark, underground trap-ridden labs/dungeon type space. Complete with a corpse pinned to a wall!
The image quality is a bit off at times, there was an intro with that grainy "too dark" pixelation stuff going on and some bits were unclear. Also sometimes the screen flickers slightly, can't tell if it's intentional or a hardware/emulation thing. I'm willing to see what the heck is going on though!
Not doing the bingo thing. My goal is to just burn through my steam unplayed games list willy-nilly. A lot of these games are ones I bought as part of combos back in the day.
I kicked off the month with one of the older games in my backlog: Lugaru HD. Released in 2005, I probably bought it as part of some combo deal around 2010 but I'm not totally sure. In this game you play as a humanoid rabbit fighting other humanoid animals.
The game launched without too much issue until I tried adjusting the resolution. I changed it to the highest resolution and relaunched it only to find I couldn't see half the screen. After resorting to finding the config file and changing it back to where it started, I gave up on tweaking and just launched the game. I don't know if the resolution was still not working right or if it's just intended that the other characters stare at you without saying anything back (it's caption only, no voice acting).
The age of this game stands out for sure, but even for the time this game feels bad. It starts with an obnoxious jumping puzzle and talking to characters before the real gameplay loop starts; which is just combat. You fight NPCs, the freeze screens when you kill them, and then once you kill them all you are shoved back to the menu screen in a way that feels like you died or something. Then you go to the next map where you start the loop over. The combat feels horrible, I just sorta rabbit clicked (heh) and prayed. The story is super minimalist: other rabbits killed your family so now you're going to kill them.
I gave up after an hour.
Skipping the bingo card is totally valid!
Last May I played the spiritual successor to Lugaru, called Overgrowth. It sounds like the story and combat are not completely dissimilar, though thankfully I didn't run into the same technical issues you did.
I imagine that if you didn't like Lugaru, you probably won't like Overgrowth either, but I thought you might be interested in seeing how the concept evolved over time.
I hope your next game works a little better for you!
I saw mention of that when I was looking at the Lugaro store page. Overgrowth looks a lot more playable as I do think my biggest problem with Lugaru was how primitive it is. Like there's a hint of stealth but the sneak mechanics and feedback mechanisms aren't there. At least not in a way I can appreciate as my spoiled, 20 years later, self.
Overgrowth might be more enjoyable for me... But it's not something I already own, so not playing it anytime soon :)
I decided to go with something more recent after doing such an old game last night. Last summer during the sale I bought the "Ratizen" combo of Ratropolis and Ratopia. I played Ratopia previously and liked it but never played Ratropolis. With Ratopia recently going 1.0 it seemed a good time to try out Ratropolis.
Ratropolis is sorta like slay the spire in that it's a roguelike where you build a deck over a run and defeat enemies. But it has some super mild city building elements or I think the store page says tower defense. I played just one run as I didn't really have enough time to do a second after getting a late start. You have to unlock all the choices for how to run the game so I of course went with the initial character. I think I did fairly well for a first ever run, lasted 22 waves and about 45 minutes. I beat the first big boss but just barely and wasn't able to recover sufficiently to survive the next wave from that side. My biggest challenge was trying to read the small font of the cards since I play from a couch on a TV that's not giant.
Overall I'm mixed on it, I put it in my "maybe" list for revisiting more properly. I'm not huge on roguelike gameplay loops. I felt a bit sad when I died even though I know it's inevitable and while I unlocked several characters there doesn't seem to be a super clear "level up" to it. But maybe if I ran a few more rounds it'd start to feel better.
I also played a second game I (correctly) thought I could get a feel for quicker than doing another run of Ratropolis. That was "Trauma", a Flash game from 2011, with point-and-click puzzle gameplay where you essentially explore the fever dreams of a woman who was just in a traumatic car crash. It's almost more art project than game honestly but it's quite a cool little thing. It has a bunch of little video snippets and the game consists of scenes composed of photographs you swipe between in a sort of panorama. The input is primarily swipe gestures, which I suppose was fairly topical back then. As you play you learn different patterns that do different things (like a swirling one lifts rocks, a z shape one cuts brush) and you find different polaroids that tell you your main goal for each level. There's only 4 levels, each of which has several polaroids to find, a main ending, and 3 alternative endings. I only played for 20 minutes and got one ending for each level. I might circle back to this to at least get through each of the main endings so I can see what happens, especially since it won't take very long.
I'm loving reading about these Humble Bundle deep cuts! Not sure if you're doing this on purpose, but Lugaru and Trauma were both in the VERY early Humble Bundles, back when a Humble Bundle was a massive event on its own and didn't happen every week. I'm pretty sure Lugaru was in the very first one, as Humble used to be run by the Lugaru devs.
I remember really liking Trauma back when I played it, and I had pretty much identical feelings about Lugaru. I found it clumsy and hard to get into. It felt more like a tech demo than a full-fledged game.
I do think that it's an interesting release, simply because it's a "big" indie title from before the late 00s indie boom with games like Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, and, of course, Minecraft. Indie games were much more rare back then, especially 3D ones (I feel like the main indie scene back then was 2D flash games). As such, I think Lugaru is more of a neat time capsule than a great game in its own right.
You're right! Thanks, that actually solves the mystery for me. I was trying to track down when I bought Lugaru the other night and was actually really confused because it didn't show up in my steam history or even my email history. But I do have a receipt for the first Humble Indie Bundle which had Lugaru in it! I did a few of the early humble bundles.
Day 3...
On December 2011 I bought the "Winter Sale 2011: Double Fine Pack" which included Costume Quest. Today I played that for the first time. It's a light RPG where you play as kids trick-or-treating on halloween when monsters suddenly invade and kidnap your sibling. Ironically enough, I tried adjusting the resolution when first launching the game and yet again had the game break as a result. But luckily a relaunch solved it without much worry.
The game is light and funny, good variety of gameplay between running around on the map, some mini-games and the battles. Graphics are good looking. I spent an hour and a half on it and got through the first act. The one thing I don't love is that the combat is about 90% QTE and 10% strategy. The other thing I don't love is that it was clearly meant for controllers. Those two aspects combine annoyingly. I was playing with a wireless keyboard so QTE is already a bit iffy and the 4 QTE buttons are Q, E, Space, and Shift. For Space and Shift it literally has those words in equal sized rectangles without coloring so you have to very quickly discern which 5 letter word starting with S it is and then hit it. Honestly this game would be better on Switch (and it might be on there, I haven't looked). Overall I liked it, I could see myself playing more but I'd need to find a fix to make the QTE less irksome (controller or remap or maybe mod).
Day 4...
I like city builders; or at least I like the idea of them. I bought Life is Feudal on Jan 3, 2018 and I even have a vague recollection of being interested in it at the time. But I guess I was too distracted by playing the Cities: Skyline DLC I also got in the same purchase to spend the time learning a new city builder. Perhaps it was for the best as it seems the developer hasn't really put much TLC into this game.
I only played a bit over an hour but it already felt unpolished and like things were missing. Like even during the tutorial I found myself needing to sit around an unenjoyably long time for things to finish building and after the tutorial completed I felt myself immediately at a loss as to what I should be doing. And then winter immediately hit. I was also a bit overwhelmed because right from the start you're presented with a massive list of every resource in the game when most other builders have them fade in as you unlock them. But that's something bigger the game lacks, there's no progression or goals or guidance. It's only sandbox mode. You also get all the possible buildings upfront but if you try to hover over the toolbar pinned to the bottom of the screen to see what they are, the hovertip appears off the edge of the screen, showing you just enough to know there is a tooltip. And playing the game felt unpleasant as most of the time there's overly strong atmospheric effects that make it harder to see the map that's already a bit tough to discern due to its bland color scheme. I would expect 7 years to be enough time for these things to be polished.
The functionality of the game felt like it had all the generic stuff I'd expect from any other city builder with a similar setting/theme. But not much unique gameplay. The one thing that is unique is the first person mode. The first time using it I found myself stuck on invisible walls and once I got past that I was left wondering what the point of it is? I can go around killing the foxes that are wandering into my buildings but not affecting anything. Or I can dance. It was slightly interesting once but not really fun nor an efficient means to support the settlement. The tutorial explains you can give a slight boost to other villagers but needing to possess a villager seems such an obnoxious way to accomplish that.
Probably won't ever spend more time on it, I have a bunch of other city builders that feel more polished and have better unique gameplay elements.
Day 5...
I did a two-fer today. I bought Shelter 1 and Shelter 2 on Dec 23, 2016 and I was originally going to do Shelter 2 today but after realizing I also owned (but hadn't played) the original and how similar the two games looked, I decided to do the original and then the sequel.
Shelter 1 you play as a little mommy badger thing leading baby badgers and trying to feed the babies and make it through a series of maps without getting them killed. In the sequel it's similar but you're a lynx. They're really simple games with basic controls (move, run, sneak, and eat primarily) and straightforward premises.
The first one is simpler and you have some fairly linear maps to get through but there's not much introduction or explanation when you first start. I had to resort to pulling a getting started guide to get out of the initial burrow. Turns out I did the right thing (put the onion next to the dead baby) but the hitbox is small and you have to put the onion in a specific spot and not just next to.
The sequel handles that better and you get an explicit intro sequence that gives you directions before you're dumped into the world. The sequel is also a bit more open world-y, has funner movement being fast cat, and builds on the first with family trees and other new features.
I spent like 40 minutes on the first and 30 minutes on the second. Overall I really like the idea and concept. Didn't feel totally engaged by the gameplay, it honestly feels like a game that'd be more enjoyable if you weren't sober. It isn't quite cozy and relaxing because... well you spend the game keeping your cute babies getting eaten. But definitely something I could see myself spending more time on. Apparently there's a third one but reviews don't look great; 2 might be the sweet spot.
Day 6...
Today I reversed time to Aug 9, 2011 when I bought one of the games that was all the rage at the time: Braid. Braid is of course the indie platformer where you manipulate time to solve jigsaw puzzles and fail to save the princess from a castle. I believe I also got this from one of those early Humble Bundles.
I got through the third world, including completing the jigsaw. I'm not normally a big platformer type, my big struggle with video games is that I don't like feeling frustrated and platformers can often be on the wrong side of the frustrating to fun ratio for me. My first thought starting the game was "perfect! I can just rewind and it'll be so much less frustrating than starting over!" Then I hit the level that doesn't let you rewind time. After some dozen tries I managed to jump on the rabbit-cats but not jump into the goomba that gets launched up long enough to catch up to the platform without any rewinding. Just on the edge of falling into the
fight or flight"stay stubborn or say screw this" response.Overall I enjoyed it and I see why it was so heavily acclaimed. The art is good despite the fact that I was playing the 2009 version. And I didn't hit any bugs. The little bit of writing I saw was good by video game standards. I could definitely see myself revisiting this, maybe even paying for the newer version. Though I'll probably stick to a single world per session.
Oh wow, great choices. I played Shelter 1 about ten years ago and loved the game. The minimalist art style and gameplay really worked for me. Though I do think it's the kind of game you need to be in the right mood for.
I own 2 but actually haven't played it yet. Unbelievably it's been sitting my "Backlog" collection in Steam after all this time. We might have to increase the frequency of these events if I ever hope to work through over ten years of games.
New Backlog Burner Plans
Schedule: Every month
Required Minimum: a full blackout card, 25 games
That will pick up the pace: 300 games a year!
It means I’ll finally get through my backlog in…
Over a decade? That can't be right.
(Nope, I'm wrong! It's actually true. This means that I uh, have some... soul searching to do. Please disregard any new rules in the meantime.)
For real though...
...this is exactly why I don't believe in clearing my backlog in the first place. Backlogs are opportunity, not obligation! The Backlog Burner is a treasure hunt, not homework.
J-Chiptunator's Bingo Card (Custom/Free, 2/25)
B✅ beatmania for WonderSwan
A✅ Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
We start with the first letter of the alphabet on my bingo card:
A. For this, I’ve chosen Advance Wars: Dual Strike for the Nintendo DS, the first entry in the series I ever played. Although it’s the third game in the lighthearted, cartoony Advance Wars franchise, it maintains the series' reputation for deep, turn-based strategy.When the DS launched, Nintendo encouraged developers to leverage its unique features, especially the two screens and the touch-sensitive lower display. Dual Strike answered by moving most information to the top screen, so you can view detailed unit stats and the battlefield simultaneously without clutter. The main action remains on the bottom screen, where you also interact with UI elements-much like previous Advance Wars games, but with added convenience.
These tweaks aren’t revolutionary, but they do declutter the interface and make planning moves smoother. However, I found the UI elements a bit small and tricky to use, especially on my New 3DS XL in 1:1 mode, which displays the DS’s native 256x192 resolution inside a larger frame. The normal scaling mode blurs the image too much for my liking, so I preferred using the physical buttons.
Beyond the dual-screen enhancements, Dual Strike introduces several exclusive features and modes on top of what Advance Wars 2 offered. Some missions and modes let you control two armies on the same map. Add to the fact that each CO (commanding officer) has unique strengths, weaknesses, and special powers, and more variety will inject into the strategy than simply having another spawn point for a single army.
The two major new modes are Survival and Combat. In Survival Mode, you tackle at least 11 maps in a row, but with a twist: you’re limited by either money, turns, or time.
Yes, there’s even a time limit in a turn-based strategy game, a design choice that might seem odd, but the maps are shorter to balance the challenge. It can help you develop faster decision-making skills, which is useful if, like me, you tend to overthink every move.
Combat Mode, on the other hand, plays more like a real-time action game (think Battle City on the NES, but with Advance Wars mechanics). You control a single unit at a time, and the action is in real time rather than turn-based. While this mode has potential, it’s somewhat limited by each unit only having one attack type each and a lack of map variety. Still, it offers a taste of what Battalion Wars, released the same year, might deliver in 3D.
Overall, Advance Wars: Dual Strike is an addictive strategy game with solid gameplay and intricate maps. I can see myself returning to it, but for now, there are other games on my bingo card to play.
First of all, I had no idea that what I thought of as the "Advance Wars series" was actually named after its targeted gaming platform. It was apparently Famicom Wars in Japan, with sequels like Game Boy Wars. That's really funny to me. I'm going to need to recalibrate my brain to stop thinking of Advanced Wars as referring to advanced tactics, and think of it simply as the Gameboy Advance edition instead (at least originally).
With that out of the way, this seems like a great pick to begin the alphabet with. An older title with great reviews that has been waiting for this day to be picked up again.
I know you're already a retro gamer, @J-Chiptunator, but sometimes I find it a little hard to go back and play earlier titles (256x192 resolution, oh my). However! I actually think strategy games in particular tend to hold up well over time, because the fundamentals have essentially remained the same since their inception. The core gameplay is still about understanding systems and anticipating the results of your decisions. Outside of UI improvements and better visuals, they're still played very similarly today.
Contrast this to other genres, which can be a little hard to go back to if you don't have nostalgia to guide your way. eg. In early 3D games, basic interactions like camera controls hadn't yet gone through years of revolution and refinement. There's a reason Goldeneye is so hard to play now. Or in others platformers, where niceties like coyote time hadn't yet been standardized either.
So good first pick, and I'm already trying to anticipate your next game. Bubble Bobble? Battletoads? Or maybe Breath of Fire!
beatmania for Wonderswan
Can’t talk about
Bwithout bringing up beatmania, the rhythm game franchise that made waves around the turn of the millennium before being eclipsed by its more advanced sibling, beatmania IIDX. This time, I dove into the monochrome Wonderswan version of beatmania, playing on a real translucent blue Wonderswan Color handheld.The core gameplay is all about syncing with the rhythm: you hit a set of buttons reminiscent of piano keys and spin a turntable in time with the music. While this might work beautifully in the arcade versions, the Wonderswan’s unique button layout turns things into a bit of a headache.
Here’s why: the Wonderswan sports 10 solid buttons, eight of which are arranged as two makeshift D-Pads on the left, with the remaining two on the right. For this game, you rotate the device 90° to the left, putting the screen in portrait mode and both your hands on the D-Pad side where most of the action happens.
The controls are mapped like this:
To make up for the unwieldy controls, the game gives the turntable and key bars a wider timing window, especially since there was an optional miniature turntable accessory you could use.
Confused? You’re not alone! The songs themselves don’t make any concessions for the Wonderswan’s quirky layout. They expect the same level of skill as the arcade originals. Even on the lowest difficulty, I found myself struggling just to fill the success bar!
What really stands out, though, is the technical achievement. The game features 11 songs from earlier beatmania instalments up to 3rdMix, and the Wonderswan’s tiny speaker manages to deliver the necessary samples in surprisingly crisp quality for its era.
This technical prowess required the largest commercial ROM size for the system, 16MB, far more than most Wonderswan Color cartridges, which typically maxed out at half that.
With its challenging difficulty and awkward controls, I doubt I’ll return to beatmania on the Wonderswan anytime soon, at least, not until I’ve mastered an arcade version and built up some serious rhythm game stamina!
Ah, this is so cool for so many reasons! I love hearing about deep dives like this. Unusual games are fun enough, but unusual games on unusual hardware is even better!
As former DDR veteran, I have a soft spot for beatmania even though I never was able to play it (there weren't any machines near me). I did listen to the soundtracks a ton though. They had a lot of overlap with DDR (both in terms of style but also some specific songs that appeared in both).
Also, as someone whose favorite console has a funny name (Dreamcast), I can appreciate the sheer and utter majesty that is Wonderswan. It gives me Katamari Damacy vibes. It's what the King of All Cosmos would play if he were a gamer.
Also, for anyone that's a visual learner, here's the Wonderswan, and here's a Beatmania controller. I can definitely see how the mapping would be an issue (just HOW are you supposed to use the turntable B-button with that setup?!).
I'm curious: have you played any other games on the Wonderswan? What else on the system is worth looking into?
It's quite difficult for me to recommend Wonderswan games for a few reasons.
First, how much enjoyment you'll get out of its library depends on your tastes of Japanese culture, specifically around the turn of the millennium.
Like, there are a lot of games based on animes, particularly towards the end of the handheld's lifespan. If you're a fan of Digimon and/or One Piece, you'll be glad to hear there are a lot of these games, some of which are worthwhile.
Second, many of the essential games are superseded by better alternatives found on both older and newer consoles. Generally speaking, you're not there to find the creams of the crop in video gaming history; you're in for experiencing curiosities stemming from the quirkiness of Wonderswan's hardware and game design.
With that and the fact that I've only played a few Wonderswan games in mind, I've got some quick and dirty, but not exhaustive recommendations...
Buffers Evolution
A short platformer whose main focus revolves around speedrunning through levels. There are optional transformations that will help you on achieving better times, such as the wheeler one that improves overall speed.
One Piece Grand Battle Swan Colosseum
This 2D brawler is a great showcase on how the Wonderswan Color can stand toe-to-toe with Game Boy Advance outside of sound and Mode 7/3D rendering capabilities, particularly in terms of sprite animation.
Dicing Knight Period
This top-down action RPG game has you go through procedurally-generated dungeons, where progression is achieved by finding keys that can unlock doors that lead to the next floor and possibly a boss fight. The twist here is that damages dealt, taken and recovered are determined by literal dice rolls whose outcomes are already predetermined.
Fun fact: this was originally developed using the commercially-sold WonderWitch development kit. It got eventually re-released into a proper retail Wonderswan Color game, albeit very expensive to acquire nowadays.
I played Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2 on the GBA. I feel like I got Dual Strike, but if I did, I didn't finish it. Think I just got distracted with other things and never went back. But I had so much fun on those GBA titles. They got rereleased on Switch a couple years ago, but didn't pick it up.
It's too bad there's not that many games like AW. I guess there's Wargroove, which I'm still technically playing, but it feels different to me from Advance Wars. Like I have less freedom in WG than in AW. Or maybe I'm just misremembering how AW played.
Did you actually play it on DS? Or did you use an emulator?
(Also, @kfwyre, I know you pinged me in your announcement post -- I'll join again in November!)
I actually played the game on my New 3DS XL running in DS Mode. It also runs well with the latest version of TWiLight Menu++ and nds-bootstrap too, outside maybe the wireless multiplayer part.
I also bought Dual Strike's Virtual Console port from Wii U eShop years before the online storefront closed its door in March 2023.
I'm using @kfwyre's seed, so my table will be the same as his (edit: now updated below).
I've already begun picking out some games that I think will fit these categories well. Some of them are "backwards picks", where I choose the game then fit it to the category, and others are chosen more based on my expectation. I may move some games around too if my expectations prove to be incorrect.
I think I'll do a standard card this time around, and follow my usual lackadaisical route towards a bingo. I can already tell that my May is going to be packed though, so I'll likely be choosing shorter games this time around to try to get some names on the board. Thankfully, I already have a few on my shortlist, and I'm looking forward to having an excuse to dive into those.
Uncertainty✅ Roundguard
Roundguard
My first submission is for the game Roundguard, which is a roguelike curiously based on Peggle mechanics.
Like Peggle, you play primarily by lining up your shot, waiting for the perfect moment, then firing and hoping for the best. You might be able to predict the first bounce, or even two, but after that all bets are off. For that reason I'm putting this under the category "Uncertainty".
So what makes this a roguelike? Each run is unique, and has you progress through different dungeon floors in the vein of Slay the Spire and other popular roguelikes. It follows the traditional map overworld design with branching paths, though your paths are decided by - you guessed it - Peggle mechanics. For that reason it doesn't always go the way you plan. Hope you were ready for that boss.
Towards the beginning, there's not a lot of interactivity. You start off with one "spell" that you can trigger after launching, but it costs mana so you only have a few uses. However, as you progress further and begin unlocking upgrades, the game also becomes more interactive. By the end I was firing numerous spells were launch, regaining some control over the randomness and chaos before me.
I played for about three hours, and did two runs with the default Warrior class. The first run ended in death at the boss the Act 1. The second run I managed to complete the game, beating up the big bad. I came 14th in the weekly leaderboard, for whatever that's worth. This ended up unlocking a lot of stuff, including artifacts that can influence future run (usually with both a positive and negative effect).
The game feels like it has enough depth that you could actually begin to "get good" at it, and not just trust in the randomness. For example, I realized that if I'm vulnerable for one turn and taking double damage, it might make sense to just try to collect some gold and leave the baddies alone. Also, certain enemies are scarier than others are should be prioritized, and that might mean spending a little mana to bust down some walls to get to them before things get bad.
I know this game is sometimes compared to Peglin, another roguelike Peggle game (yes, really). From what I understand, Peglin is more focused on the deck building aspect, whereas Roundguard is more focused on the post-launch action (which I think I prefer).
I've mentioned before in past Backlog Burners that I'm not a huge roguelike fan, but I know a lot of people are. So if you're a Popcap-aficionado-turned-roguelike-fan, you've definitely got some options.
I thought it was pretty fun, and a unique mashup of seemingly-unrelated mechanics. I've played enough for right now, but I would like to eventually try the other characters.
Roundguard is currently 75% on Steam, and 60% off on Android. I think I prefer the precision of a mouse here, but I could see it working on mobile, too.
If I can make only one complaint, it's that my ears weren't blasted with Ode to Joy upon finishing a level.
I'm one of the people that likes Peglin better than Roundguard, though I admittedly enjoy them both. I also need to go back and give Roundguard a fair shake, as I started playing it right when COVID first hit, so I think my enjoyment of it was dampened severely by the unshakeable anxiety of that time. I suspect I'd like it a lot more if I were to return to it now.
It's like you're seeing into my soul! Ballionaire is actually another Peggle roguelike I've got my eye on (I like that they're getting popular enough to be their own genre!).
This should honestly just be an option for every video game -- like subtitles or v-sync. It would improve my experience across the board.
Oh my god they're multiplying!
Too lazy to Bingo, so just gonna do the reports!
With the announcement of Switch 2, I've been working at finishing up Switch games. Currently doing FE3H. I got it on first release and did one route, Claude's. I'm now working on finishing the other three routes. I just finished Edelgard's route, and started Dimitri's a couple of days ago.
After that, next up is Okami HD.
SingedFrostLantern's Bingo Card (Standard/Flow, 2/25)
Tense✅ Resident Evil 2 REmake
Absence✅ Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Tense - Resident Evil 2 REmake
Resident Evil is a classic survival horror zombie series that started off with camera angles and tank controls before shifting to over-the-shoulder shooter gameplay since 4 (and first-person since 7) so it's a pretty good match for Tense. I'm not really a horror person, but the REmakes are pretty popular so I got them in a bundle and it's backlog bingo time. 2 in particular is about Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield heading into Raccoon City to investigate before having to take refuge within the police station/deathtrap. Modded with REFix.
Now my experience with Resident Evil has been 4, 5, 6 and the Wii rail shooters, which is to say the games where you shoot all the zombies in the face and suplex them. The starter zombie at the gas station here took 10 headshots out of Leon's 12 bullet pistol to put down. Yeah, that gameplan isn't going to work plus the knife isn't infinite durability anymore. Now my plan is stand still for accuracy, shoot in the face to stun, and quickly move to the next room unless running isn't an option anymore. That locker storage room with loot? Yeah no, two zombie cops chasing me, not enough ammo for them. Library jumpscare? I've been mashing the map key every few moments, exit's right there, shoot the zombie by it and move. Helicopter exploision? Bolt cutters are right there, open up the door, back to a previous area, run back through the previous exit and-
Oh yeah, that exit's a dead end now from one of the cutscenes before. This entire sector is a dead end with 4 zombies on me, myself cornered in a hallway, the alarm blaring outside. The actual exit was backtracking up the stairs where the helicopter exploded with only 1 flaming zombie and a very short walk back to the main hall. I got to experience the dumb horror movie victim moment for myself. Nice.
As of right now, I have the the lion and unicorn medallions, a red jewel, and the shotgun, minus the 2 knives I've lost, one from overuse, one from counterattacking a biting zombie and having to run from the crowd. It's only been 2 hours, but I think I'm going to let this simmer, probably look up a guide for the 3rd medallion location. The game's bringing up those feelings of "I'm lost, where am I going?", "What is this puzzle, how do I solve it?", "Wow, I'm wasting so many resources from wandering around lost." I don't think any of that is the fault of the game itself considering how detailed the map is for the player, but moreso me not really meshing well with the genre.
Interesting! I also picked up the REmakes somewhat recently (probably the same bundle!), but haven't played any of them. I played RE1 and RE2 way back in the day, and the "I'm lost and losing resources" feeling that you talked about was quite compelling to young me. Back then games were far harder to come by, and I had a lot more time, so I was a lot more willing to kind of throw myself against the wall in survival horror games, learning from my mistakes over time and thus devising a more "optimal" and comfortable playthrough over hours and hours.
Today though? I don't know that I've got that patience in me. I recently emulated Dino Crisis and gave it up after only a few hours. I found that I was simply using save states as a crutch, finding out where I'd be attacked, then re-loading my saves until I could navigate those moments with minimal health loss and resource expenditure. I think this is my own fault for min-maxing the "fun" out of the game, but I also think I simply don't jive with that style of gameplay anymore where you can end up with an irrecoverable "bad save" and have to start the game all over again.
Given how well the REmakes were received, I thought maybe they changed up that style of gameplay, but from your description it sounds like they kept it pretty similar. Maybe that's a good thing because it's what people want from the genre? But I don't know if I've personally got the stomach for it anymore.
Absence - Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Chicory is an adventure game where color has suddenly drained from the world (Absence) and it's up to Chicory, the current Brush Wielder, to restore color and get rid of the encroaching corruption. Except Chicory locked herself into her room (and later openly admits to being depressed at the start of Chapter 2), so it's really up to you, the janitor/Chicory's #1 fan (default name Pizza), to pick up the Brush instead. This is made by the same studio as Wandersong (which I definitely recommend), so it has the same kind of welcoming world, strong themes regarding self-esteem,
and the occasional bouts of otherworldly horror. Given that, it'd be pretty easy to slot this into Identity or (inner) Peace instead and be more fitting, but Absence feels like a hard category to fit.I guess the easiest comparison for gameplay is a 2D Zelda game as far as the top-down perspective, screen transitions, puzzle-solving and exploration for collectibles and sidequests, though there isn't any combat
besides the boss fights where you have to enter their world. Beating each dungeon unlocks a new traversal ability, but it's mostly using the mouse to color in the path (and the paint fill brush style to make things easier).The game offers a two-tier hint system if you're lost; Using the payphone to call Pizza's mom will have her point out the next objective (or available sidequests in the post-game) and an additional prompt to have Pizza's dad give the exact solution. Unfortunately, there are areas that don't show up on the map and the collectible tracker NPCs only say which regions still have items to collect so I just looked up locations for the last 7% completion.
I liked it well enough, but between the two games, I think I preferred Wandersong; more of a structured story, more subversive of tropes, and I guess more people helping out and expressing themselves instead of the general reverence and "only you can do it" attitude towards the Brush Wielder.
Chicory - Titles, Self-Worth, and Expectations (spoilers)
The Brush Wielder is revered. When Pizza picks up the Brush, the locals are a little surprised but accepting of the choice, and pretty much everyone else sees Pizza as the Brush Wielder period. Only 3 people doubt Pizza: Chicory, who didn't really care who picked up the Brush and just knows Pizza as the janitor/fan, Blackberry, the Brush Wielder before Chicory who doubts her apprentice, and Radish, who lashes out from the frustration of her own art not getting noticed. Only Radish points out Pizza's art skill level (the player using a mouse/controller stick), but that's attributed to the aforementioned frustration and everyone else in the game sees Pizza's art as insightful and meaningful no matter what you draw. Given the vibes, I think it's just meant to be an accepting world, but a more cynical interpretation is the reverence towards the Brush Wielder:
All those expectations lead to different reactions from the 4 Brush Wielders seen in-game:
aside from the lategame where Pizza loses the Brush during the apocalyptic conditions where they move at a slow gait and aren't really responsive to their family saying they've done so much good already and that's all anyone can ask for.The Brush itself turns out to be the source of the corruption, but Pizza and Chicory are able to manifest their own personal Brushes to defeat it and strive to teach how to everyone else in the future which kinda goes into anyone being able to do it and reducing the pressure upon a single wielder/role. I feel like it would've been a better message if other people had manifested Brushes during the finale to help, but I guess the two Brush Wielders supporting each other to defeat their self-doubt is good too.
It sounds kind of cute, and comparing something to "2D Zelda" will never fail to grab my attention.
I love the idea of restoring color to a world. Or even transforming an area in some other way, like lighting torches to illuminate a room, or cleansing some kind of evil. I really enjoy seeing the transformation and direct effects of your "work" on an area. It feels more impactful than collecting the 7 power stones or whatever a game might ask you to do.
This one sounds close-ish to a title I played about ten years ago, called The Last Tinker: City of Colors. That was more of a 3D platformer than narrative-driven, but it was what made me realize I enjoyed this kind of game.
I actually ended up with "Color" as a category, so finding something just like this would be perfect for my own card.