darksnowman

That's a fair enough observation. Don't those lend themselves pretty handily to replaying stages since they're just doors off a small central hub? I can only think of having played Lego Star Wars back in the day and City Undercover is a different set-up due to the open-world nature of it.

Finished this off over the weekend with 37.3% completion. Do I need 100% for a "thanks for playing!" message? Very much enjoyed my time with it—maybe because I was never at a loss for where to go next. Tbh, it was actually a bit naggy with beavering you onto the next mission. Cool too that missions were like self-contained levels once you started into one. I thought the ending chapter was fun to be part of and well done. The music during the final section fit it really well. The humour never dropped off either. They went above and beyond with the guy on the construction site! Kind of weird that there is no save and quit option? I was never really sure what hadn't been autosaved every time I switched it off. It always picked up the story where I left off but no idea if I lost any unsaved collectables. Would be nice if the steam train from the museum is an unlockable. Even though the story is done, I'm not against going back to it in the future to mooch around for some more disguises, rescue some cats, launch (return) pigs. In hindsight, I should have just prioritised doing the missions since you need your abilities for a lot of the side stuff you come across. E.g. just before getting the cat-rescuing ability, I was jumping up around the roof of the airport (as you do) and thought I heard a cat meowing. Cue the next chapter where I got the ability. And the entire game I was wondering what those wobbly ground bits were so now I've the drill I can go around and interact with them. Same with barricaded doorways. But I had a good time following my curiosity and doing some exploring as I went, even if it only took me to a dead end of sorts. Biggest annoyance I'd say is the paint gun since you can only have it loaded with one colour at a time. Overall though: great fun. Am I an open-word gamer yet?

Anton Blast demo gives you access to two levels and two characters. I did one level with one character. The game is obnoxious. Let's never speak of it again. Europa (satellite of Jupiter), can't fault the vision, though the controls have a weird feel to them because you can hold B to charge your jump so if you just tap the button for a quick hop, it takes a hair to register, like it's waiting to see if you want to charge up or not. Doesn't seem like the game will put you in any pressure platforming situations, but still. Gives it a weird feel.

Little Kitty, Big City (May 9th) still looks all right. Yars Rising (Wayforward & Atari, 2024) looks cool but maybe not for me. Refind Self (summer) looks interesting! Sticky Business (out today) looks fun but don't realistically see myself getting it. Antonblast (Nov 12th) looks fun! Demo out today! Valley Peaks (2024) looks relaxing. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (May 16th) is one to look out for. Europa (2024) I hope doesn't just look good. Demo out today! Turtles rogue like (July)... not sure. Need to know more. Cat Quest 3! (Aug 8th) I still haven't got 2! Demo today! Stitch (out today) looks like a nice chill-out game. Already worried about missing loops if you don't start on it immediately. BZZT (summer) looks like an indie platformer. SCHiM (July 18th) is about shadow hopping? Animal Well (May 9th) has nice lighting? Not much to go on, really as these ones came thick and fast. Duck Detectives (May 23rd) could be fun! Another Crab's Treasure (Apr 25th) I wonder if this is any good. SteamWorld Heist II (Aug 8th) I need to catch up with this series. I think I got Heist years ago but still haven't even tried it. I've gold points that will begin expiring in the coming months so I'll have to take a punt on one of these if I don't see something else on sale.

Bub G : indie-made Bubsy Battle Royale. Sports Story update. Easy on the waffle/ interviews. Indie app on NSO.

Had sort of planned to get to this around a year ago when I was hoping to develop some open-world chops for TotK. Didn't happen so I'm on it now for something different. Enjoying it a lot. It's great fun. Brimming with personality. It's like Police Academy, Hot Shots and plenty more rolled in. I like that it drops you in whether you have knowledge or not of what transpired previously and has the confidence to unabashedly bring you up to speed and make sure you get on board with what's going down. As an open-world game, it's going well for me. It tells you clearly where to head next and makes sure to nudge you in that direction every so often. I find myself poking around and going on little detours (mostly to find I don't have the required ability yet) but it's still fun to nosey around and doesn't take you too far out of your way. Probably helps that you're always getting blocks so it never feels like time wasted going on these little excursions. I'll admit I've been getting a sinking feeling in my stomach each time I've been sent to a new part of the map because I don't really want to comb through the length and breadth of all these areas as it's becoming a lot to hold in my head, but so far it seems grand if you just hit the story objectives and ignore the rest as you please. As long as it stays like this without becoming overwhelming or so big it's a chore to get from one spot to the next, I think I'm in for a good time. In fact, it's already in the "have I really been on this an hour already?" category so it must be doing plenty right. Reminds me of Burnout Paradise at times. Which I don't know if that says more about the game than it does about what I know about this genre. Minor gripe is the initial load time and the camera control is back to front for my tastes. Yes, I've driven the train. And loved it.

Did you give the game trial a go? It's light on the metroidvania and heavy on the fetch quests. Overall, it's decent enough if you know what you're getting into so the game trial is a great option.

Think I've seen all but a match and a half this season and it's got extremely predictable recently. Not surprised the opposition has figured it out too. Eze, now. A week's a long time in football. Back then it was about putting a dent in Arsenal's goal difference. Now a goal's been clawed back it's all for nought??

Holy Magic Century Batman!

Had a go at it and was swiftly defeated by the first boss encounter. Got sent packing when I tried one of the S-rank colosseum tournaments as well (pre-credits, there was no peril clearing them up to A rank). I was able to make one A rank monster but since I don't remember seeing a Slime Hill anywhere and there's nowhere left to explore, I can't think of a good path for getting new monsters up to speed other than just grinding the Whispwoods entryway which doesn't seem too inviting. I'm sure it wouldn't take long at all to get a newbie up to level 20, but to get them in shape for a boss would take a while I feel. So I might leave it there. Very good game. Got 40+ mini medals. I enjoyed the announcers in the colosseums and when the story intersected with DQ IV it was pretty cool to be part of. The bit where the boy—never warmed to him—used the sands of time to bring things back was cool too although I was up for pursuing the story the way it was headed before it pulled you back.

Sega does what Nintendid.

Is it worth doing the Whispwoods? Do you get anything for it? I made heavy going of it in the middle echelons until I did some synthesising. Thought I could press through to the uppers before rejigging the party but no matter how much grinding I did, those low rank monsters couldn't do it—there was a boss that would wipe them all out in one turn when it decided to. Once I stopped being loyal to those monsters, it was plain sailing and I ended up with a group of B and C ranks by the "end".

I went through a similar feeling, needing to get used to the controls again with the first few blocks. Was Mario Wonder the last one? It's been a while since then, I suppose.

What's the hurry, MURRAY? I didn't expect Origins to be on the docket this soon. Looks like I'll be playing catch-up. Don't know what the deal is with the battle system in it but I'd expect it to be refined in some way after the first. Glad to hear there's been a few battles inside the first 30 mins.

Enjoyed playing in this theme. Provides a decent backdrop and the music compliments Tetris nicely.