I have not done anything for a while. Life happens. Looking to the future, shakey, but other things are happening. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I am doing Extra Life Charity streaming for Seattle Children's Hospital this year. A couple hours every Sunday. Health won't let me do the 24 hours without repercussions. You can watch at either my Extra Life page (and donate there too).
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.
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.
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.
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.
