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I've heard of Depths of Sanity. I'll put it on the list. (TM)
Whaaat why? Probably music licenses I guess... They're all good games though.
Something I wanted to sorta rant about. Slightly spoilery... Okay, pretty damn spoilery for Tyranny and Shin Megami Tensei IV here.
I was thinking about how important choice is in games. Particularly, even if you don't actually make one. In Tyranny, as it shipped, you must eventually betray the Evil Overlord. It was a controversial decision because the whole crux of the game is that you are part of an Evil Empire and most of the game's lore revolves around it. And honestly, it sucks. It kind of took the wind out of my sails. Eventually a patch came out where you could indeed pledge loyalty to Kyros. Did I take it? Hell no, they're an asshole. But just the fact that the betrayal was MY decision made it feel so much more meaningful. Same thing happened in SMTIV: The entire first half of the game is you being manipulated/groomed by a group called The White who want you to blow up the universe. And you CAN. Doing so is not considered a true ending, more of a Non-Standard Game Over, but just the fact that the game allows it makes telling The White to shove it all the more satisfying because it wasn't something you where railroaded into.
It's... Actually surprising that the first time this twist originated in was the OG Dragon Quest.
You are not alone.It's because they don't want to keep maintaining the servers. Even though Mirror's Edge literally only uses them for leaderboards.
Fortunately, there was such backlash that they took that one off the list.
Funny how that game is otherwise the Trope Namer for But Thou Must!.
Edited by Perseus on Mar 22nd 2023 at 5:27:44 AM
Here's the trailer
for LEGO 2K Drive.
It kinda reminds me of the LEGO Island games.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Mar 23rd 2023 at 9:07:11 AM
The Protomen enhanced my life.Embedded version:
Color me interested. Show us how deep the building experience is, and then we'll talk even deeper.
Also, the game's setting, Bricklandia, is called "the Land with a Billion Bricks". Subtle reference to the scrapped LEGO movie "The Billion Brick Race"?
Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Mar 23rd 2023 at 9:17:26 AM
I'm a bit concerned about the pricing model. The two different "Awesome editions" listed both come with 550 coins, which given they're more expensive editions and no coins are listed for the base version suggests microtransactions...
My musician pageI find it interesting how much early 2000s 3D platformers like Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper took off, whereas other ones like Ty the Tysmanian Tiger and Blink: The Time Sweeper didn't. Games like Sly Cooper could easily be dismissed as a Sonic clone by virtue of being an animal platformer, yet I don't really see that.
Yeah SNES/Genesis of course had a wave of new platformers that where walking the trail blazed by Sonic, the PS 1/N64 era gave us Banjo, Crash and Spyro and a decent amount of sleeper hits like Tomba, Klonoa or Ape Escape and the PS 2/Gamecube/Xbox war had at least a dozen contenders including Jak And Ratchet. But after that... Nothing, really. There are some indie darlings of course but AAA work has basically abandoned the ring to leave Nintendo undisputed.
You are not alone.The first and main reason why Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper managed to keep up despite the mascot platformer dying out, was because they were or went Darker and Edgier then their contemporaries, which was prevalent during the sixth gen of consoles.
The second was they were exclusive to the PS 2, the second best selling piece of videogame hardware of all time, and had backing from that console's developer Sony.
Ty suffered because of his cutesy looks and being multiplatform, and Blinx suffered for being kiddie on a "not for kiddies" original Xbox.
And reminder that there was only one new Mario game for ten years between 64 and the NSMB 1, and that was Sunshine (all of the other Mario games were updated rereleases in the Advance series or the remake 64 DS).
And Sonic's quality began dipping once the blue Hedgehog had to go multiplatform.
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
I also get the feeling that games like Ratchet & Clank feel less one note. Instead of just focusing on a character's quirks and gimmicks, you get this sense that you're not just being shown a character, but that you're also being shown a world worth exploring, with a variety of skills to gain and things to do. It's as if the world matters just as much as the character your playing as themselves, as opposed to being secondary in games like Ty or Blinx.
Random Beat 'em Up thoughts as I go through a few that I somehow missed. Jesus christ they released a lot of these in the nineties. I thought I knew about all of them, even obscure titles like Undercover Cops or Gaia Crusaders, but they just keep showing up.
D. D. Crew is awful with almost no redeeming qualities. Gameplay is tepid, friendly fire is brutal, enemies and levels are uninspired. Does have a hint of "Action Movie Fan Fiction" as a lot of the characters and bosses are clearly ripoffs of actual actors.
Mutation Nation is fun and fast in comparison. Big scary enemies that squelch and mutate as you fight them. Flashy screen-filling special attacks are satisfying to pull off. Doesn't exactly innovate past the Charged Attack but it'll kill an hour or so.
64th Street: A Detective Story is just so boring. Enemies take too long to take out. Picking up a weapon feels terrible because it simplifies the combat even worse. Enemies come in a lot of shapes and sizes but rarely vary their tactics, cardinal sin in a belt-scroll. At least the two playable characters play a bit differently. Rick has a cool Kazuya-style uppercut but since it drains your health you'll never use it. It does have a lot of destructible environs though, which is awesome.
Next up Robo Army and Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon.
(If you want a recommendation play Sengoku (SNK) 3 or Alien vs. Predator (Capcom) )
Edited by ShirowShirow on Apr 5th 2023 at 6:16:18 PM
You are not alone.Just for fun, was trying to see what game franchises have had consistent releases for the longest, and these are what I came to find:
The Oregon Trail - 45 years
Space Invaders - 45 years
Galaxian - 44 years
Pac-Man - 43 years
Mario - 42 years
Wolfenstein - 42 years
Microsoft Flight Simulator - 41 years
Burger Time - 41 years
Q*bert - 41 years
Nobunaga's Ambition - 40 years
Bomberman - 40 years
Dragon Slayer - 39 years
Ninja Jajamaru - 39 years
Reader Rabbit - 39 years
Daisenryaku - 38 years
A-Train - 38 years
The Legend of Zelda - 37 years
Bubble Bobble - 37 years
Kunio-kun - 37 years
Arkanoid - 37 years
Dragon Quest - 37 years
Metroid - 37 years
Street Fighter - 36 years
Final Fantasy - 36 years
Megami Tensei - 36 years
Edited by electricmastro on Apr 13th 2023 at 1:00:25 PM
Sega: We have no plans for another Chao Garden at this time.
Chadtronic: Fine then, I'll make my own.
Dragon Slayer is the one that had a More Popular Spin-Off that itself had a More Popular Spin-Off, right? Are you counting all of those?
Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson join their The Last of Us co-star Troy Baker in Stray Gods, a new roleplaying musical game inspired by Greek mythology.
The trio joined other cast members like Felicia Day, Mary Elizabeth Mc Glynn, Anjali Bhimani, Rahul Kohli and Janina Gavankar on stage to present a short concert of a few songs from the upcoming game. Bailey stars as Grace, a college dropout that gains the powers of the Last Muse, Calliope (Johnson), after she dies in her arms. Now she must prove her innocence in Calliope's murder while facing down members of the Greek pantheon like Persephone (Mc Glynn) and Apollo (Baker).
Stray Gods comes out on August 3.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Apr 13th 2023 at 1:33:35 PM
The Protomen enhanced my life.Holy hell they released an IGS arcade collection on the switch, which includes The Gladiator and Martial Masters, two games I didn't even know had English translations in any capacity.
Absolutely grab this if some classic Arcade action in Beat 'em Up, Shoot 'em Up or Fighting Game flavors are in any way in your wheelhouse. Some amazingly solid gameplay and spritework. Qian-Qian from The Gladiator stands out as having the best walk animation in video game history.
You are not alone.

I'm not sure that it counts as "super-niche", but thinking of Metroidvanias I recently played "Depths Of Sanity".
It's essentially "metroidvania meets cosmic horror", with our protagonist setting out in a rescue submarine to recover the crew from a lost vessel. But the sea-life is oddly-hostile, and something starts preying on his mind—and then things get darker still...
Overall, I had fun with it, and can indeed see myself going back for another playthrough!
It's fairly linear, and the upgrades and weapons were perhaps a bit hit-and-miss for me. But conversely, some of those upgrades and weapons were pretty fun—and occasionally had some neat non-standard uses—and the exploration was pretty cool.
Also, the "cosmic horror" element was, to my mind, better than I had perhaps expected, with a couple of nice twists.
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