BlissBulbs Review or How I got a spray of light.

Quick review of the BlissBulbs

For more information see the BlissLights web site - https://blisslights.com/

"At Peace" by Chill Carrier from the release Dazzling Fragments - https://chillcarrier.bandcamp.com/album/dazzling-fragments

Tiny Bubbles Preview at the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo

Zheros have come to save the day!

The evil Dr. Vendetta is trying to take over the universe.  The only thing that stands in his way is you, one of the two members of the Zheros Squad.  Do you have what it takes?

"You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round." - James J. Corbett

Given that the first two sentences above are about the extent of the story for the game Zheros, there is a lot resting on the shoulders of the other aspects of the game.  Namely it’s all sitting squarely on the gameplay and style.  Let’s just say things get complicated.

You have your choice of playing as Mike, who is muscle bound but dim-witted, or Captain Dorian, who is agile and smart.  While they seem different, I found that they both play fairly the same.  So it really comes down to, do you want to play as a guy or a gal?

When playing Zheros solo things get bogged down pretty quickly. In those first few levels, enemies come in small waves, this is fine since you are still learning the combo system.  Eventually, though this becomes predictable and slow.  A wave of enemies, pause in action, rinse, repeat.  As things progress there are more enemies, bigger and worse enemies, but the same pattern.  A quick tip; learn those combos.  As waves become bigger pulling off longer hit combos will result in bigger scores at the end of each level.  You have a gun and shield also, but I found I didn’t use them often.  Depending on how well you did equates to how many resource points (RP) you get to upgrade your hero with.

“I'm a believer in getting punched in the face. I know it sounds clichéd, but to me, fighting is a metaphor for life.” - Frank Grillo

One big plus is Zheros, like the old beat’em up brawlers of the past, has an on-the-couch co-op.  Here is where Zheros shows its strength.  The action picks up just at the right level for two players to battle back the forces of evil and win the day.  Oddly, while it does pick up in action, the payoff at the end of levels is not balanced.  It rewards with RP, but the better player gets more points, which sets up one player becoming dominant through most of the game.

Overall

I feel like Rimlight Studios’ heart was in the right place for Zheros.  They wanted to capture the feel and fun of a retro brawler like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, or Final Fight, and to that extent they did.  Adding a combo system, like we see some modern brawlers, does give the game’s combat a nice zing.  It's the gulf between solo and co-op that drags down Zheros.

The graphics are Pixar quality, but the setting becomes blandly repetitive, with a "cut-paste" feeling. Even with that sameness, it seemed as if there was a lot more action (visually speaking) going on in the background rather than the foreground.  That bland look may also makes players end up repeating levels, when something is missed or you can’t backtrack.  For example, there are points where levels will branch, if you go too far down one branch you won’t be able to explore and gather hidden bonuses down the other branch.  To me, this makes the game feel more artificially extended than it really should be.

Zheros runs a weird line down the middle.  Solo, this game isn’t paced well and is at best a “taking a quick brain break from the other, more involved, games I’m playing.”  On the couch co-op though, is fun and would be great to play with family and friends.  As such Zheros earns the middle 3 out of 5

Zheros is available on Steam, PlayStation 4. and Xbox One.  For more information see the official Zheros website.

The Last Journey, is the longest.

Space is a huge place.  Getting from one place to another takes time.  If you have lots of time developer Sleepless Clinic has a game for you, The Last Journey.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." - Lao Tzu

In the future, things didn’t go well for planet Earth.  Nuclear destruction has devastated all life, but a few spaceships managed to launch before the final blow.  Among those few is your ship.  Although it is unmanned, it carries the DNA samples of mankind to start over on a new planet.  Your mission is to find that planet.

"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." - Matsuo Basho

The Last Journey is an exploration game that emphasizes the vastness of space.  How does it do that you ask?  Well by scattering planets, asteroids, and the other ships from Earth across a large grid map.  As you fly your ship around the grids on the map, those you have flown through will be become shaded.  Grids that have something to find in them will be more lightly shaded.  You will be switching back and forth between the map and your ship view often.  Why?  Well, frankly, there isn't much else to do.  Distances between planets and the other ships are huge.  What you’re doing most often is avoiding asteroids.  Running into asteroids damages your shields and eventually destroys your ship.  You will find other ships and planets.  Mostly they allow you restock your fuel, shields, and oxygen.  Ships will have parts of the story for you to uncover and sometimes upgrades for your ship.

The controls are super simple.  Right clicking on the mouse turns your engines on and off, and you have only one speed.  Left clicking on the mouse points your ship in the direction of where you clicked on the screen.  That is it.

Overall

I really don't know what to think of The Last Journey.  I went in thinking it was going to be an epic adventure of exploring the galaxy.  Even though you do explore, the adventure is sorely lacking.  In fact, I would have to say, unless your idea of fun is watching paint dry, The Last Journey will disappoint you.  When I say it "emphasizes the vastness of space" I mean it.  Flying along there is nothing else to do but watch your ship and avoid asteroids.  If you do get close to a ship or a planet a snippet of music starts playing and a small guiding arrow appears pointing you in the direction to find them.  In almost an hour and a half, I found four ships, one planet and little else.  The rest of the time was spent with the drone of the ship's engines as I watched it fly across the stars.

Now to be fair, the game is free, so the only thing The Last Journey has cost me is time.  Also the story and voice acting is above average, but there is little else to keep my interest.  The game doesn’t even have achievements or Steam Cards for you to unlock.  The only thing to keep me going is to see the ending.  That’s only because I’m curious to see if there is an end.  I’m not even sure how to score The Last Journey.  I have not run into any bugs or glitches, it plays exactly how it’s advertised.  This issue is that I find, if I don’t sit down with a cup of coffee and possibly an energy drink nearby, I’m going to nod off playing this game.

This is a game for those that want their exploration of space to be a long drawn out affair with little else to do.  For those people, I'd give The Last Journey a 4 out of 5.  For everyone else that expects some action or adventure with your exploration, I'm hard pressed to even give it a 3 and that would be strictly on story and voice acting alone.  Beyond that, if you have trouble sleeping, this game help you find the land of nod.

The Last Journey is currently available on Steam for free.  It is playable on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Below is my first hour and twenty-two minutes with the game.

Voodoo Vince comes to life again.

3D platformers seem to be making a nostalgic return.  The remastered packaging of Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and the release of the Banjo-Kazooie’s spiritual successor, Yooka-Laylee, all tapping into that feeling.  Not to be outdone, a small cult classic from the original Xbox is getting the remastering treatment too, Voodoo Vince.  Is nostalgia wearing rose tinted glasses?  Or is Voodoo Vince Remastered worth the update?

"My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from." -  Wyclef Jean

Ah Voodoo Vince, the wise-cracking voodoo doll who is brought to life after the bad guys, Jeb and Fingers, spilled magical Zombie Dust on him while kidnapping his voodoo priestess, Madam Charmaine.  In their escape they spill so much of the Zombie Dust between Madam Charmaine’s shop and Kosmo the Inscrutable’s headquarters, they warp reality all along their escape route.  Vince’s journey takes him through under and around the French Quarter of New Orleans.

"Day in, day out. That same old voodoo follows me about." - Johnny Mercer

The colorful Saturday morning cartoon style of the original Voodoo Vince is still here, but has been overhauled for a crisper and cleaner HD experience.  Included in the upgrade is the fun jazzy soundtrack.  The rest of the game has been lifted part and parcel from the original, so no changes here.  At first glance, all the typical ‘90’s platforming elements are here.

Platforming jumps to navigate?  Check.  Puzzles to solve?  Check.  Creatures to defeat using spin moves and jump attacks?  Check.  Lots of collectibles to find and gather?  Check.  The hook for Voodoo Vince was his special voodoo powers.  Hurting himself with different moves to defeat multiple enemies and severely injure, if not outright destroy, mini-bosses.

The camera for Voodoo Vince, like almost all platformers of its time, is problematic.  It’s here that some of the charm wears a little thin. Not always staying where you put it, moving or zooming in/out at the wrong time, not always letting you get a good angle.  In some instances I understand it being locked down for an animated sequence or special puzzle part, but some places it was just pure trouble.  This happened mostly when I was trying to catch the collectible glowing skull in each level.  You end up guessing where it is as you chase it through most of the level because you can never keep the camera on it to follow it.  This causes you to end up chasing it a lot more than you should.

Overall

I played the original Voodoo Vince on the first Xbox and it was a happy surprise to hear that it was getting an HD remaster.  With the exception of Microsoft-owned franchises, very few of the games that were exclusive to the original Xbox have gotten this treatment.  The nostalgia in me enjoyed playing through it all over again, but the gamer in me wishes they could have tweaked the camera for better control and maybe made some new levels to expand on the admittedly thin story.

Voodoo Vince does still play well and increases the desire for more good platforming games, so maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll do a Voodoo Vince 2 after all these years?  One can hope!  Voodoo Vince Remastered takes us on a happy ride through the way-back machine with better visuals and family fun.  I give it 3.5 out of 5.

Voodoo Vince is available now on the Xbox Live, Play Anywhere (Xbox One and Microsoft Windows) and on Steam.

Chaos and Order in Streets of Rogue

Creating order out of chaos; everyone does this on some level, daily.  Making meals, working at a job, cleaning house, even playing games, it's all a matter of looking at the pieces you are given and putting them together.  How we do that is what helps us accomplish our goals.  Matt Dabrowski’s Streets of Rogue is a lot of that, looking at the chaotic pieces and figuring out how to make it work for you.  Let’s see how hard it is to clean up the city.

"Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man." - Henry Adams

Streets of Rogue is a roguelike style game that doesn’t take itself too seriously.  The storyline is simple; you have joined an underground resistance group after a corrupt Mayor has taken office.  His promises of "lowering taxes" and "more beer" were instantly flipped when, after his inauguration, he raised taxes and confiscated all alcohol.  The Mayor attempted to explain away the confiscation by saying it was so he could throw the "mother of all ragers for his constituents."  Instead, it was one keg and one bag of tortilla chips.

And so it goes, as you start in the slums and work your way up through the stages of the city to again bring peace and order to a once prosperous city.

"We adore chaos because we love to produce order." - M. C. Escher

The style of Streets of Rogue is, well, brutal.  You have one life.  If you get killed it’s all the way back to the start in the slums.  Everything you’ve found or earned is gone and you have to build yourself back up.  The only things that stay are the Chicken Nuggets you earned (in game currency) and any traits you’ve “unlocked.”  A quick note on the traits, they are not something you will have right off the bat at the start of the game.  You have to unlock the ability to have them randomly offered to you as you level up.  There is a lot of randomness in Streets of Rogue, so you never quite know what you’ll get next.

Each level is randomly generated with equally random missions for you to complete before you can move on to the next level.  These could consist of freeing slaves, recovering items, neutralizing people or just pushing buttons.  Typically there are at least two missions per level.  How you go about completing these missions is up to you.  Each mission can be done in several ways, which depends on the character class you chose.

Let me explain.  There are many characters to choose from at the start and more to unlock as you complete specific tasks in the game.  For example, if you rescue a gorilla in a level you unlock the gorilla as a playable character.  Each character has their pros and cons.  Again let's look at the gorilla; since this is the character I've played the most.  The gorilla has some of the best stats in the game; high strength, endurance, and speed, but low accuracy.  Gorillas can't speak, so any mission where I need to talk to someone, I'll have to find an alternate way of completing.  On the other hand, they receive double health points when I eat bananas.

When I first started playing I didn't pay much attention to these character pros and cons.  As a result, I got killed often.  It wasn't until I played multiplayer with a friend that I started not only noticing character stats but also how certain rules in the world could be used.  For example, I received a mission to neutralize a scientist.  If my character is low on their heath or is otherwise unable to confront the scientist, but there is a caged gorilla on the level and I am able to somehow release it, the gorilla will automatically attack the scientist.  They are "natural enemies" in the Streets of Rogue universe because the scientist is always experimenting on the gorilla.  It's things like that; when you step back and examine how the world works, Streets of Rogue becomes a delightful puzzle where you work out how to pit the game against itself.

"Chaos is a friend of mine." - Bob Dylan

Now working the rules of the game against itself does make it easier, but you will still find it a tough challenge to get through the game.  Playing solo, I've barely made a dent, but I am sure it can be done.  However, if you bring some friends who know how things work it all becomes even easier.  When I started playing with a friend of mine we both were still learning the game for the most part.  Even so together we were getting further along than we had on our own.  Pushing through the slums into the industrial areas.  Co-op maxes out at four players and I can see a well-coordinated team that has the right balance of character classes reaching the end.

Overall

For me, Streets of Rogue started as a "what the hell am I doing wrong?" game.  As I learned more, it became, "OK if I do this, this will happen, so then I can do this."  At that point I really started enjoying the game.  It is currently available as an early access game on Steam with plans to eventually bring it to consoles.  For a game that is "not finished" it is surprisingly pretty damn solid.  I myself did not encounter any bugs so kudos to Matt Dabrowski.  The game is continuously getting tweaked and updated and Matt has stated in his Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that even he isn't sure when it will be completely done.  As for myself, I am going to try to corral a couple more friends into playing it.  Once you know the game it becomes a fabulous romp of chaos and triumph.  I give Streets of Rogue a 4 out of 5.

For more information see the official Streets of Rogue website.

Here is a look at the first 45 minutes of gameplay in Streets of Rogue.

Adventures for Children in the Lands of the Zoonicorns

It's been a long while since I reviewed anything for young children.  Since so many friends and family members having children, let's change that!  Here’s something so cute parents might even be interested!  Let’s check out Zoonicorns.

"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." - Denis Waitley

What are Zoonicorns?  Well, they are magical creatures that are part zebra and part unicorn that visit young zoo animals in their dreams.  In those dreams, the Zoonicorns help empower the young animals that visit their dreamland and learn life lessons at the same time.  The tales are told through three interactive stories on a tablet or handheld device and one hardcover book.  All four make great bedtime stories since the adventures take place after the young zoo animals have fallen asleep.  The three interactive stories have concealed bits that can play a little bit like "hidden object" games.  Also for a small $2.99 in-app purchase the interactive books have "Read to Me" and "Autoplay" features.

"The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop." - Mark Twain

There are also three simple game apps that you can download for your children.  There is Ene’s Matching Game, Aliel’s Hidden Objects, and Valeo’s Adventure.  Two of the games, Ene's Matching Game, and Valeo's Adventure can be downloaded for free with in-app purchases for additional level packs at 0.99 cents each pack.  Aliel's Hidden Objects is 0.99 cents for the whole game.

All three games are simply described by their title.  Ene’s Matching Game is the memorization matching game where you are shown cards that are then flipped over and you have to find the matching pairs.  Aliel’s Hidden Objects is a “Where’s Waldo-esque" game where you have to find hidden objects.  Lastly, Valeo's Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling platform game patterned off the Mario Bros. Style games.  In it, you have to get from start to finish, gather stars, and avoid bad monsters.

All three games are simple, yet challenging enough for young minds to be engaged while winding down for bedtime.  I will say Valeo's Adventure does suffer a bit from the typical tablet control problems, the lack of tactile feedback means you never know when your finger is off the actual movement controls.  But in my playthrough of the free levels, bad monsters seemed to be placed with that taken into account.  Still, I can see some children could become a little frustrated at certain points.

Overall

Zoonicorns is a cute and cuddly universe filled with fun, but it seems limited at the moment.  The main draw here seems to be the storybooks and the stuffed Zoonicorns.  From an adult point of view, the games are short with a limited replay value.  Though remembering my own childhood, some of the games I played the most often were similarly limited, it was more about who was playing those games with me.  The Zoonicorn website is split into a children’s section and a Parent’s Zone.  The children’s section has some coloring pages and typical maze, word find, and connect the dots activities that are all downloadable PDF files.  The Parent’s Zone has an online shop for the stuffed toys, the one book and an ongoing blog with advice for activities parents can do with their kids.

It all seems to a nice start to an interesting multi-platform franchise for kids and parents, it just needs more.  Looking at the current offerings it appears like the ongoing blog to help inspire parents is getting more updates than actual things for the children to be inspired by.  Maybe that was the intent, especially for working parents looking for inexpensive ideas that would allow them to spend more time with their children.

Still, I know that the Zoonicorns themselves, especially the stuffed toys, will be the thing that really grabs the kids.  A physical brightly colored, fuzzy toy kids can hug and have adventures with and then at night be read to sleep by mom or dad?  It sounds like a solid beginning.  I say check it all out and judge for yourself, or let your child decide for the whole family.  As for the games, I give them all a 3 out of 5.  They are good, but not great, yet.

For more information, you can see the Zoonicorns official site.

Or you can check out the Zoonicorns Parent's Zone site.

So Many Loot Crates

About eight months ago things went sideways in my life and some things were put to the side.  I won't go into details of what happened, but they were enough that stopped doing some neat things I had going.  One of which was unboxing Loot Crate mystery boxes and Loot Crate's LVL UP mystery clothing bags.

Well, the have been piling up and it's time to catch up.

Welcome to the unboxing of eight months of Loot Crate goodies.  Enjoy.

Cleaning up the mean Streets of Rogue.

This week I'm doing something a bit different.  I play through the first 45 minutes of Streets of Rogue single player as a preview.

Streets of Rogue is a rogue-lite styled single or multiplayer game that lets players complete missions any way they wish. The game is developed by Matt Dabrowski (@madguy90) and published by tinyBuild games.

Let me know what you think of this preview/walkthrough in the comments here or on YouTube, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

For more information on Streets of Rogue check out the official website.

Adventure and troubles await in Trulon: The Shadow Engine

What do you get when you take a book, a musical play, and a dash of steampunk then mix them together?  Well, it seems you get a turn-based, card combat, traditional role-playing game (RPG) influenced game.  Finnish developer, KYY Games, took that blend to give us Trulon: The Shadow Engine.  Let's take a look.

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

In the kingdom of Tripudia, things are not right.  The normally lush and peaceful countryside has seen an uptick in vicious monsters.  Young monster hunter Gladia ventures forth to investigate why, after her father is injured.  It’s not long before she discovers the source to be a crashed zeppelin.  The design hints at it coming from the neighboring kingdom of Maelon and it’s leaking Dolorum, a magical energy only found in Maelon.  With this information, Gladia rushes to tell the Tripudia prime minister who plays down the crisis but vows to create a committee to investigate the crash site.  Seeing that the prime minister is not fully interested in problem Gladia decides to go to Maelon herself and find out more.

If you find yourself curious to learn more about Gladia’s world, there are a lot of tie-ins to the original novel, Trulon: Shadow Gears, written by Johan Lillbacka and Jak Koke.  It follows the adventures of Tripudian prince Neo and his friends.  There is also a musical that was performed at the Finnish amusement park, Powerpark.  The story for Trulon: The Shadow Engine stands on its own, but it's nice to know that if players wish to seek out more, they can.

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." - Amelia Earhart

The gameplay for Trulon: The Shadow Engine has a slightly retro feel of traditional turn-based RPGs.  You have a leveling system with equipment you can use for stat bonuses or additional magic effects such as stunning enemies with a successful hit or setting them on fire.  The difference here is the combat is card based instead of action based.  At the beginning of combat, you will draw your hand limit of cards, one wild card, and a default attack card.  Your hand limit is based on your current character level.  Everything is random except for the default attack card, which will be the same for each character.

You start with a small smattering of cards and gain more from winning battles,  rewards for completing quests or finding some in hidden chests.  Some cards will be character based, but many can be swapped in and out of various character decks.  Learning the combat system is easy.  The hard part is deciding what cards you should have in each character's deck.  In combat, the draw is random so the more cards you have in a characters deck the less often the cards you need come up.  For example, when your health is low you want your healer mage to be able to heal, but if they haven't drawn the cards yet, things may get a bit nerve wracking. The same can be said for the more powerful combat cards.  Luck, it seems, has a heavy influence on the flow of combat.  On the plus side if you are defeated the game drops you at the point just outside the encounter you lost.  This allows you to go right back in and try again or go do something else.

"Sure, give me an adventure and I'll ride it." - Melissa Auf der Maur

The retro feel echoes throughout the look and sound of the game.  Battle animations have a pixelated 16-bit era look that is juxtaposed over the static anime art of the story scenes.  In the lands of Tripudia, everything is bright, lush, and colorful while in the neighboring kingdom of Maelon everything takes on a more downtrodden brown and industrialized gray tone.

Music helps reflect the character’s origin kingdom and teases with drama in the combat.  Cheerful, upbeat, and happy melodies for Tripudia, while mournful and sad tones represent Maelon, and an energetic rock song plays while in combat.  There is no voice acting, every conversation or story part is text based.

Overall

When I started Trulon: The Shadow Engine I wasn’t sure what I was in for, but soon enough I was exploring the world and enjoying the adventure.  The story, coupled with the fact it has a real life musical, makes the game seem to be targeted to tweens, yet even I was delighting in it.  It made me remember the enjoyment I had with old Final Fantasy, Lunar, and Phantasy Star games. Even combat, with its random element of luck, took on some elements of strategy when deciding what card to play, which cards to put in decks and even what stat or combat bonus items to equip.   That thoughtful strategy element does come into play when the difficulty curve of enemies takes some serious spikes up as you play through the game.  Your options are to get lucky or grind it out in the overworld map hoping to find random encounters to help level yourself up.  And it should be noted, random encounters are few and far between, so have whatever lucky token you swear by sitting in your lap.

Now for the bad news, when “it” happened.  The game breaking glitch.

At about the five-hour mark, one of the side quests I was on froze the game.  I'm in combat, the music is playing, my characters and the enemy are lined up ready to go, but no cards are drawn.  I have no controls. I can't even get to the options menu.  So I do the only thing I can, drop to the Xbox home screen and quit the game there.  I restart the game, pick my save file, and damn it.  The game autosaved right at the beginning of the encounter so I can't back out of it and move on.

A quick search of forums and websites show that this is a known bug in the game.  KYY Games is aware, but for now, advise everyone to ignore the side quest.  The worst part is that particular side quest is also tied to a secret achievement.  So while you could avoid the quest and finish the game you still won't "finish" the game completely.  Not to mention those of us who have put in quite a few hours into the game already, only to have to start over and play through everything again.  It was fun the first time, but it's lost a little something the second time, plus now there is the worry of, will this happen again with a different quest?

In the end, I want to finish the game and I do hope KYY Games fixes it soon, but the glitch casts a dark pall over the game.  Enjoyable, but currently broken I give Trulon: The Shadow Engine a 3 out of 5 for now, with the option to bump up the score if the game gets fixed.

For more information check out the official Trulon: The Shadow Engine website.