Gamerdog's list of simi-obscure games you should all play
- Psychonauts
- Ghost Trick
- Recettear
- And Yet It Moves
- Rhythm Heaven
- Bastion
- Eversion
- Sequence
- The World Ends With You
(does that even count I don’t know)
if your tumblr is about any of these although i’m not really sure how you could run a blog about ayim or rhythm heaven really, can you like… send me an ask and let me love you? And if it’s not, but you’ve at least played them/one, can you still let me love you and can we be hipster gamers together forever?
I’ll probably even do individual posts where I fan over each of these soon guys. :D
Hello World! Game On!
Well this Thanksgiving weekend has been just insane with deals from Valve on Steam. I have purchased a ton of games and incredible discounts but I will not be playing them just yet. I am curious to see what people may want to see me play on YouTube. Here is a list of the games none of which I have played any of except for VVVVVV a little bit while at work. I don’t really count that though since I had the window incredibly small so it wasn’t so obvious. Give me some feedback people!
AltitudeAnd Yet It Moves- Cogs
- Dirt 2
- Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time
- DogFighter
- Droplitz
- Eufloria
- Flotilla
- Gish
- Gratuitous Space Battles
- Iron Grip: Warlord
- Jolly Rover
- Metro 2033
- Monkey Island 2: Special Edition
- Plain Sight
- Puzzle Agent
- Puzzle Dimension
- Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
- Shatter
- Tidalis
- VVVVVV
- World of Goo
I will be making rather short videos for each, around 5 minutes just to give an introduction to the game. Afterwards if you want more, well you know what to do.
Review - And Yet It Moves (Steam, 2009)
A beautiful puzzler with some of the most relaxing gameplay around
And Yet it Moves is an indie puzzle platformer with a unique aesthetic that revolves around fully exploring a single mechanic. If that description sounds familiar, it’s because indie developers make games like that a lot. It’s like they can’t help it - they have two beers and wake up to find they’ve accidentally created a puzzle platformer with a unique aesthetic that revolves around fully exploring a single mechanic. Luckily, the fact that this description is common is no comment on the quality of the games themselves, which are often excellent. And this game is a perfect example. And Yet it Moves takes its single world-rotating mechanic and crafts an engaging and visually stunning game that is an absolute pleasure to play from beginning to end.
Games I Played in 2011 - Part 2: Wii
I sadly managed to neglect my Wii for most of 2011 but there were two 2010 holdovers that I was still rocking during the early part of the year.
I professed my love for the Mario Kart series during my indulgent run-down of my favourite 3DS games of 2011, and Mario Kart Wii was another superlative entry into the series. I might have unlocked all the bonus characters way back in 2009, but the replay value of online competition, and those epic, two-hour plus Grand Prix’s with all 32 courses kept me coming back for more.
Sticking with the portly plumber, New Super Mario Bros. Wii was everything I could have hoped for, and then some.
Whilst (barely) just a teenager once the 3D gaming craze hit (the free-roaming perspective sort, not the migraine-inducing optical illusion of the 2010s), I’d never taken to 3D platformers in the way I had with 2D. Crash Bandicoot on the PSX remains an eternal favourite of the ‘3D’ genre, but that was an incredibly linear experience (2.5D really) when compared to it’s spiritual N64 counterpart, Super Mario 64. And even into the PS2/GameCube era, I always found Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil with it’s 3D rendering but 2D side-scrolling gameplay preferable to the likes of GoldenEye 007.
Once New Super Mario Bros. Wii arrived in 2009, following on from the New Super Mario Bros. DS title, it was all I’d been asking for since 1996. Incredibly fun game play, great music, fabulous visuals, and it ushered in a new wave of ‘retro’ style titles, offering a resurgence for 2D sidescrollers like Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and even Rocket Knight.
Christmas 2010 meanwhile brought the DKC sequel/reboot Donkey Kong Country Returns, which I’m absolutely ashamed to admit remains unopened despite my intense desire to play it (I am a strange old soul), as do a pair of older Wii games I picked up during an eBay splurge - NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and Wario Land: The Shake Dimension. I got both for less than a fiver each (along with Sonic the Hedgehog Unleashed for the PS3), and both were cast wastefully aside to the pile marked ‘I Really Must Stop Being a Colossal Turd and Play These Fucking Things.’
As for the Virtual Console, I stuck to the classics of my youth. Of course I picked up Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 (though I find Mario Kart 64 to be the lesser of the series, which is a bit like saying cold, leftover margherita pizza isn’t as good as a piping hot pollo - perhaps it isn’t, but it’s still better than almost anything else.)
I spent a few nostalgic hours with Donkey Kong Country, the very underrated Sonic the Hedgehog Master System title, and the original Super Mario Bros. which I wound up playing a lot more on the 3DS. And I even threw some Wii Points at Alex Kidd in Miracle World, a game that brought untold joy when built into SEGA’s Master System II but now brings untold frustration when I try to get through any more than two or three levels today.
Given the rise over the last couple of years of budget, digital-only titles, it surprises me SEGA haven’t farmed out the Alex Kidd license to an indie developer to score a few easy bucks with a modern makeover. Besides appearances in SEGA Superstars Tennis and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, there hasn’t been a standalone Alex Kidd title since 1990’s Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, and even that was a parody.
And another thing. Why did I forget to buy Kid Chameleon like I intended to?
BONUS! Games I Played in 2011 - Part 2.5: PC
This being a shorter entry than my 3DS and PS3 blogs, I’ll use this space to bemoan my shitty PC which, had the graphics card not been piss-weak, would have probably kick-started my year with a blast of Donkey Kong 64 on the quite great Project 64 emulator, a game I’d love to see ported to the 3DS, along with Wave Race 64.
I’m also certain I’d have spent more time with the best games I got from donating to the Humble Indie Bundle #3 which included the brilliant And Yet It Moves and the puzzling Cogs, a game I greatly enjoyed on my uncle’s laptop but couldn’t get running on my PC. Grrr.
I did get Air Hockey, Christmas Mahjong and Angry Birds all running through Chrome apps though, which for someone without a mobile phone or a tablet device was quite the treat, even if the music on Angry Birds is cause to run amok through your local town whilst wielding a gigantic axe.
And again, why didn’t I get round to playing Back to the Future: The Game after I fell in love with the demo? Weirdo.
hiroshimishima replied to your post: Review - And Yet It Moves (Steam, 2009)
I have it from a Steam Bundle, but couldn’t really get into it. Probably cause my computer cannot handle it, it’s far too laggy. I didn’t see you mention it in the review, but I think many achievements involved pulling off long and difficult falls.
I didn’t personally experience any lag, but my Mac is fairly new, and does well with games like this.
I believe you are right about the achievements. I didn’t mention it in my review because I never mention achievements, because I don’t care about them. I know a lot of people get into them, and sometimes they can be a good incentive for replay or something, but they just don’t do anything for me. I would get no enjoyment from playing a level again just to try to fall from one side of the level to another or from trying to complete a whole level with no movement, just rotation. To be honest, achievement hunters and “100 percenters” just confuse me. Unless you can only afford one game a year and need to squeeze every ounce of play possible out of every game, I have difficulty thinking that way.
