Pokémon Sun/Moon (Part 5)

Pokémon Sun/Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Aether Nightmare

That's fine, I'll just wipe out YOUR Pokémon in turn.

We’re dropped off at the artificial island’s dock and battle our way through the Foundation. The employees have a wide variety of Pokémon and are in general a much bigger threat – finally, some challenge. Nic joins Hau and Gladion to the elevator. One floor above, the team encounters Branch Chief Faba. The guy's sole Pokémon is defeated, easily, and Gladion strong-arms Faba into letting them go to the lower floors, where the conducted experiments might tear the fabric of reality apart. …Wait, what?

Of course, to get all of that information about Nebby, your
Trainer probably had to skim through tons of technobabble.

The Foundation knows about the intruders, so the trainers better act quick. The employees encountered on the lower floor talk about the organization developing new Pokéball types for non-Alolan Pokémon, and that Cosmog is the key to open Ultra Wormholes. Outside one lab, Gladion reveals that he stole Type: Null from the Foundation, where it was created to battle the Ultra Beasts. A binder reveals that the discoverer of Ultra Wormholes was Professor Mohn. Hey! It’s the Poké Pelago guy! In the same room, a computer says that Cosmog is an Ultra Beast – and that the “dangerous creatures” it threatens to bring to Alola whenever it teleports are more Beasts, but that it only ever does so when under serious stress. Which is exactly what Lusamine is trying to provoke. Oh no! The Foundation isn’t gonna be abusing lil’ Get-In-The-Effin-Bag Nebby The 1st on my watch!

A Ledian, at this point of the game, really?

Going downstairs was a trick, as this is a dead end. In another lab, Nic can read up on Type: Null's ability to change type using programs, since Ultra Beasts tend to have huge type weaknesses. A few floors above, after another battle, the team meets Wicke, who heals everyone’s parties and addresses Gladion as “young master”. Hmm… Farther, the group encounters Faba again, and double battles ensue. Lots of double battles in this place, really – all topped by one against Faba and an employee, who is quickly beaten, leaving the branch manager against two Pokémon. He didn’t think that through, did he?

Pokémon Sun/Moon (Part 4)

Pokémon Sun/Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

We can continue our trip across the third island.

Plaza, Scans, Etc.!

This park kinda looks like... you know the one....
Giant castle and all that...

I make a big deal about how Pokémon Sun and Moon feel empty, but the truth is, they only feel that way due to their Ultra versions blowing them out of the water in many aspects; but both sets of games still share most of their features. And, in fact, there’s a few that I’ve barely mentioned yet!

Well, I did use them a lot, yes. Not so much after I was done
with the game, though...

The Festival Plaza is S/M’s online multiplayer area (…well, it was until the Nintendo 3DS online connection was terminated, but you can still use this mode to connect with local 3DS owners). Battle friends! Trade Pokémon (either on Link Trade, using the Global Trade System, or Wonder Trade)! The place is helmed by Sophocles, and has a level-up system. You earn Festival Coins from visitors to your Plaza, which you can then spend at any of the shops around the Plaza. The Coins also function as “experience” of sorts, so the more of them you collect over time, the more your place levels up. There are little rewards to obtain through leveling up the Plaza, all the way to Rank 100 (but you can keep going all the way to Rank 999). You also earn Coins by playing the mini-games through the Festival Tickets given daily by the hula girl by the castle entrance.

At every new rank, you can report back to Sophocles and gain a new facility. There are seven types, all with their own level, from 1 to 5 stars – the more stars a facility has, the better the rewards are when you play them. You can participate to each of the seven facilities you have set up in your Plaza once a day. Past a certain level, you can even change your facilities based on suggestions from visitors! The facilities include:

In a 1-vs-1 battle, all Pokémon are set back to Level 50.
Or taken up to that Level, depends.

Pokémon Sun/Moon (Part 3)

Pokémon Sun/Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Still going through Akala! Time to start the next trials.

Fire, Grass, and Dimensions

....Dude! Get out of the frame, I'm trying to take a picture
of the Marowak!

Salazzle is a cool Pokémon that has the same issue as
Vespiquen: Only female Salandit can evolve, and they're
rarer. Good luck ever getting a shiny Salazzle...

After the Battle Royal tutorial, the kids meet meet Kiawe, the next trial captain, shirtless with hair shaped like fire. He invites the trial-goers to Wela Volcano Park, where his challenge will take place. Bit of a trek, but it allows us to see more creatures from Alola, Fire-types this time. Kiawe waits at the top of the volcano, and his trial is… Dances! Nah, that would be too complicated. You’re shown two clips of Alolan Marowak dancing and must tell the difference. This leads to battles against an Alolan Marowak or, weirdly, a Hiker who photobombs the Heck outta this challenge. Okay, that one got a laugh out of me. The third round ends with the fight against the Totem, a Salazzle. With her defeat (this trial is funny but underwhelming, not gonna lie), Nic is given the Firium Z from Kiawe. We’re also given the Charizard Ride Pager, allowing us to Fly between Pokémon Centers we’ve visited, and thus between islands! With this, we head down the volcano and towards the next stop.

Here's a reminder that most Charizard are 5'07'' on average,
so I wonder if they just have bigger ones on standby for
taller people to fly on.

They seem pretty legit!

Route 8 has a few things of note, such as a small camp for the Aether Foundation, whose employees dress in white and say their goal is to help Pokémon. They look trustworthy! Hm. Dunno why I said that. Our protagonist is approached by a scientist with a long wild strand of hair – Colress, formerly of Team Plasma, happy to observe and study the adventures of other young Trainers. He drops a hint that he’s already seen Mega Evolution in Kalos. Colress is the first person to mention Poké Pelago, a mode available after the Fire-type trial. Past that is the Fossil Restoration Center, whose owner wants to make a park for fossil Pokémon. A… Jurassic Park, if you will. Visiting the motel reveals that Gladion rented a room for two years and “lives” there, when he’s not busy with Team Skull.

Pokémon Sun/Moon (Part 2)

Pokémon Sun/Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon : Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Are we finally going to our first trial?

Verdant Cavern

The epitome of posturing to look tough, but being pitiful
instead. And at the amount of posturing these idiots do...

At Hau'oli's pier we meet Ilima, but we’re interrupted by members of the local criminals: Team Skull! These guys sport bandanas and wear clothes that makes them look like, well, skulls. They throw their hands around as if they couldn’t settle on a single gang sign, so they’re just tossing them all at once. Full disclosure, most encounters with them are minor and not worth mentioning every single time. Occasionally, they serve to introduce other NPCs (such as Faba or Hapu), but that's about it – so I won't go over every single appearance. These reviews are long enough as is!

Ilima fights one, Nic fights the other. The defeated grunts flee like cowards. As thanks, Ilima heals the Trainer’s Pokémon. After which, he challenges the trainer to a battle, and upon defeat, invites him to Verdant Cavern for the island trial.

Ohh, ohh, ohh, Ilima's Smeargle is gonna paint at me.

Inspect Dens to lure out Yungoos (or Rattata), battle them,
access the Totem. Get unlikely help from the Skull losers.

Nic travels up Route 2, passing by a motel and the Hau’oli Cemetery, then finally, the cavern's entrance. Ilima explains the trial: Nic must defeat three Pokémon that will jump out of their dens, then collect the Z-Crystal on the pedestal at the end. Careful, though; a Totem Pokémon, larger and tougher than the others, may be guarding it. This first trial needs to show how different it can be from the gym battles we’ve seen in every other Generation. The solution? Have a bit of everything. Battle wild Pokémon (which you’re not allowed to catch during the trial, but you can return afterwards), explore or investigate areas, complete quests, answer trivia questions. Most trials end with a fight against a Totem Pokémon and you obtain a type-specific Z-Crystal as a reward; Nic gets a Normalium Z here, but he has to battle a large Gumshoos (in Sun) or Alolan Raticate (in Moon) for it. Totem Pokémon have an aura providing stat boosts to make them into “bosses” at the end of these trials. Totem Pokémon will always call allies.

Almost 10 years later, I still freaking hate this thing's
design. I just do.

Pokémon Sun/Moon (Part 1)

Pokémon Sun/Moon: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon : Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Even the tone seems to differ between these two sets.

For this blog’s 12th anniversary, I will be doing something special. This is going to be two game reviews, and you can already tell what the concept will be. Yep! I’m doing a Pokémon Special! Full coverage of Generation 7’s Pokémon Sun/Moon and their updated rereleases, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. Two sets of games so intrinsically linked that I couldn’t review them apart. There’s just too much going on across four games.

Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon (S/M & US/UM) are weird beasts in the Pokémon mainline series. We’ve seen similar stuff before, but not to that extent; games that are remade within the same Generation, with a different plot, wider pool of Pokémon, and more stuff to check for. Even previous remakes I covered (FireRed/Leafgreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver) were separated from their originals by one Gen, and had plenty of changes due to the transformations the franchise had seen in that time. (Also, those remakes are considered good. Same can’t be said for the Gen 4 remakes, from what I heard!)

It's also different from the situation of  Pokémon Black/White and Black 2/White 2. In that case, the latter were sequels to the former, not the same story with changes. Game Freak has never done that again; but, in all fairness, it did allow for B2/W2 to correct some of the more glaring issues of the original B/W. I can’t help but think that this may have helped inspire Gen 7's Ultra versions.

Also, wat a pretty setting it is for the adventure.

A major aspect of Pokémon Sun and Moon, released on November 18th, 2016 in North America, is that desire of change from Game Freak. A wish to experiment with a formula which, let’s be honest, had gotten stale. Leave home with your starter, go through eight Gyms, beat up the evil gang, defeat the Elite 4. Well! In Alola, based on the islands of Hawaii, you don’t fight Gym Leaders; instead, you partake in an Island Challenge made of several Trials, which generally involves battling, but may add more. Totem Pokémon are introduced, and perhaps more importantly, this is the first Generation to have Regional Variants of past Pokémon families.

That was a whole lot of getting ahead of myself, wasn’t it? How about we jump in? (For the record, I played Pokémon Sun, but I’ll mention Pokémon Moon wherever relevant.)

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum!

Spend a lot of money to install your coasters! And make sure
your peeps pay through the nose to ride it, too - or else,
how will you make that money back?

Sometimes, you buy a game just because of one feature you really want to try out. I can’t say I wasn’t ever guilty of that, and in fact, I can think of quite a few games I bought just because I was intrigued about one thing I wished to test! Today’s game, for which the version I'm covering is no longer available on Steam, is one of those. The RollerCoaster Tycoon (RCT) games were a creation first of Chris Sawyer and later of Frontier Developments released from 1999 to 2004, and yet all of them were great examples of what computers could achieve at the time, even if some of them used interesting game dev magic to function. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was first released in 2004. It’s available on Steam under the name Complete Edition, which was released to online stores in 2020; but what I own is the Platinum! edition, which was pulled from online retailers in 2017 due to an ongoing lawsuit between Atari and Frontier. And, well, after Complete’s release, there's no need to bring it back.

I’ll review the version I have. This version includes expansion packs: Soaked!, which focuses on waterparks, and Wild!, which favors animal exhibits and shows. Let's manage some parks!

The Peeps are Back

Always gotta think of entrances, exits, and paths towards
both anytime you place a new attraction.

The core concept of RollerCoaster Tycoon is to manage amusement parks with different objectives. You may be asked to have a certain number of guests in your park, or to hit a certain park value; other times, you  tend to VIP guests and must satisfy them before they leave. The Peeps are as funny – and numerous! – as ever. But, I must be honest here, there is exactly ONE reason why I bought this game when I already owned RCT1: In 3, you can use the camera to get aboard the rides and roller coasters you place around your park, giving you a first-person view of all the excitement. So, as you can imagine, my first instinct when booting up this one was to go into Sandbox Mode and create everything I could, just to experience it myself right afterwards. That alone was worth the price.

Descending soon... WHEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHH!

Clint Bushton: Coaster amateur, ex-president, likes women
named Monica. All similarities with persons living or
dead, yadda yadda.

But! There’s still a game behind all this! 18 scenarios in the classic package, and an extra 21 (9 in Soaked!, 12 in Wild!) across both expansions, for a total of 39. All of them have objectives split in three ranks: Apprentice, Entrepreneur and Tycoon. You can’t move on to the next rank until you’ve finished every mission of the current one. On early scenarios, the later rank missions are just extensions of previous ones (ex. Have 450+ guests in your park for two months on Entrepreneur, when one request in Apprentice demanded 300+ guests for one month).

Exploring the Switch's Nintendo Classics #2

Outdated image!

I was planning on continuing these articles under the Nintendo Switch Online denomination, but then Nintendo decided to change it due to the upcoming release of the Switch 2; they are now known as the Nintendo Classics (...even though it includes stuff from the SEGA Genesis, and a lot of third-party games released on retro consoles). Oh well! I'll manage. Just a quick name change, right?

I was hoping to cover a different console for the second such article in a row, but as it turns out, the NES section has most of the shortest games among the Nintendo Classics, so – might as well do this again! For the foreseeable future, I might try to release full articles covering the short games from just one console, at least as long as it will be possible. I'll cover games from other consoles soon enough!

Sports

Go Canadians Go! ...Oh wait. Canada isn't one
of the two teams here.

Ice Hockey: Released in January 1988 in Japan and two months later in North America, this title is self-explanatory – you play a hockey team in a match against another. You choose your team (one out of six), then the opponent, the speed of the game, the duration of the match. After which, you can change the layout of your team of five; the goalie never changes, but the other teammates can be slim and weak but fast, average all around, or stocky and slow but strong when brawls happen. Yep, there can be brawls in this game. Aside from when you’re put in control of the goalie, you swing the hockey stick with A, and swap to another teammate with B. It’s a complicated game that requires way more skill than I’m likely to ever have, and I doubt I’ll play it beyond these first few tests. Though, I am told there’s a decent number of extra little programming details, like the crowd noise being louder when the game is a close one.

Spectrobes: Origins (Part 4)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

We end this today!

Krawlosphere

Final dungeon looks like a dump and is just not
interesting to explore. Checks out.

Rallen and Jeena land their ship inside the planetoid and step out. The place is nothing but writhing Krawl flesh. Gross. No other way but forward. I mean it, too; this dungeon is nothing but one long corridor forward with larger rooms for battles. You have exactly one unavoidable battle in each corridor, and then one longer fight in each room. Multiple rounds of enemies topped with mini-bosses. Thankfully, the mandatory fights don’t return once they have been cleared, which means that you can go back to the ship at any time to save, heal your Spectrobes and swap your team around.

Rice balls! Pluck 'em right out of the ground, and eat 'em!
It's okay, they're clean! Somehow!

Kinda annoys me that there’s no other way whatsoever to heal your Spectrobes, other than when they level up. The only healing items in this game are rice balls, coming in four varieties that heal your player character 30, 100, 300 or 1000 HP. Nothing for your creatures. No way to bring them back into action during a battle after they’re fainted, either – no Revives here! Nope, the only controllable way to heal any of these battle beasts is through a save point. And, oh yeah, you can’t buy rice balls anywhere. There's only two ways to find some. The first is to find them with your searcher critter. The second is to discard a cleaned fossil, which trades it away for random items – can be minerals or rice balls, gotta be lucky. Not a very reliable thing. Kinda sucks when you're short and need many, quick, before heading out to fight a boss.

These charged attacks are pretty awesome to watch.
They're better when they actually deal, y'know, good damage
to the enemies and bosses.

And the Krawlosphere being what it is, you won’t find any fossils, crystals or healing items here. Any light patches to investigate will summon enemy encounters. Which, to be fair, makes the planetoid a perfect training spot if your team is still weak against what’s coming up.

Spectrobes: Origins (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

On to the next planets!

Sure, if you Slayso!

…I should have stones thrown at me for that pun.

While I'm preparing to attack this spider alien with a robot
in it, my shoes Spectrobe is kicking it left and right.
This is a weeeeird game sometimes.

After the stop by Wyterra to present the latest shard to Radese (and reporting on the planetoid-sized Krawl coming), Rallen and Jeena head over to Slayso, the fifth planet of the system, permanently covered by a sandstorm. Its only building is a thousand-floor memorial tower built right after the Great Krawl War, many millenia ago. Only two residents: Tidy and Scout, the robots who take care of the tower. On the ground floor we encounter a spider Krawl with a robot stuck in its body; after it escapes, the officers meet Tidy, who says that Scout was captured by that thing. It fled upwards, so we must go up the floors to rescue the robot.

Go on, lil' Spectrobe doggo! Fetch that elevator! Good boy!

No other NPC in sight, so this chapter is low on story events. We climb the floors using elevators. On several floors, there’s a puzzle to solve. On others, there are seven rooms with elevators, only one of which works, while the other rooms have Krawl encounters. Other times, an elevator is located out of reach, and so we send a child Spectrobe to bring it down after following a maze of pathways. So much of this tower feels like padding that an entire hour’s worth of floors could have been cut. The only perk is that, if you force yourself to do it, there’s a lot of options for level-grinding. Your beasts will need it.

There's a couple of decent puzzles in this tower. Lots of
fights, too. But damn, it's so freaking linear.
And so... damn... long...

Spectrobes: Origins (Part 2)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

We’re continuing this quest in the Kaio planetary system!

Doldogo

Call it a hunch, but the river being turned into
Purple Drank isn't a great sign.

Eeyep, these Krawl are plants. Jeena, bring the flamethrower!

Rallen and Jeena land their ship near a village, only to see that the river going through it has run purple and poisonous. Upon meeting Gretta, the village's chief, we learn that her daughter has gone missing after going up to the Tree of Life, through the forest from the Verdant Village. The NPP officers head towards the Tree to investigate. They find Gretta’s daughter Salia, near the tree, attacked by plant-property Krawl. These aliens do adapt to the environments they invade! The monsters are defeated, and the girl is taken back to her village safe and sound.

These battles introduce status effects to battle, like poison,
or later, freeze, stunned, and so on. These are really annoying
because they impact your ability to fight, and there is
NO WAY to heal yourself from them, you can only wait for
them to pass. Poison will cause your character to stumble at
every couple seconds and lose HP as well. Augh!

Flying Spectrobes are only useful like this twice. Also, good
thing one species like it is so common on this planet! Or
else we would get stuck pretty badly!

However, the water remains nasty. Heading deeper into the woods, the heroes find large Krawl polluting the waters and harming the Tree of Life. The first two are dealt with, but the road to the third goes by a chasm they cannot cross. Jeena gets the idea of sending a flying child Spectrobe to the rocks above the cliff to break them and create a bridge. Using the C button, you can control child Spectrobes outside of battle in specific situations, to explore or solve puzzles like this one. Most Spectrobes are on the ground, but some are capable of flight. Later in this chapter, we control a walking child form through smaller holes in walls to activate mechanisms to open doors to new areas. The flying Spectrobe creates the bridge, and the officers carry through.

Little Komainu goes on a journey. Come back,
but only after you've opened the path!

Spectrobes: Origins (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Steam alone lists four digits' worth of 'Mon Games.
Oh, excuse me, "Creature Collectors". (Not all of them
are about using them to fight, so...)

Beyond Pokémon, I consider myself a fan of the ‘Mon genre. It's all about collecting animals and using them for battle – with the where, how and why changing. Game Freak’s beloved franchise sits atop them all – if you follow the leader, you stay behind them. But a lot of single games, and even smaller franchises, went for a slice of that pie – on Steam alone, I can think of tons of ‘Mon games, some of which have made the news for, ahem, reasons. *cough*PalWorld*cough* Franchises include Fossil Fighters or Spectrobes.

In the latter, we find new creatures and add them to our team by unearthing fossils, cleaning them, and reviving the creature inside. Oh, and an alien invasion is involved.

…what? No, I’m not talking about Fossil Fighters. What makes you think that? I’m talking about Spectrobes. This series developed by Genki and published by Disney Interactive Studios takes a more action-RPG approach to ‘Mon battling and collecting, with the franchise’s main character joining their creatures on the field, both in combat and in finding more beasts to add to the team.

(Let’s Play by KillinCat)

Today’s game, Spectrobes: Origins, is the third game in the series despite the name, and was released in North America on August 18th, 2009 for the Wii only. The continuing adventures of Rallen, an officer of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol (NPP), his colleague Jeena who serves as mission control, and their pet Spectrobe Komainu.

Lost in Space

Look at Rallen, acting serious and dorky all at once.
(P.S. The screenshots were taken from this Longplay
by KillinCat. Go check it out!)

The Nanairo System is endangered by an alien species known as the Krawl, who cause devastation everywhere they go. Little is known of them, other than their leader is someone named Krux. This nefarious kind is planning to use portals to spread across the universe, and thus, the Officers are tasked with protecting those portals from the threat. Rallen and Jeena are sent to investigate an anomaly in Sector W. Despite warnings that this anomaly could be dangerous, their superior, Commander Grant, is confident that they can overcome any threat.

Movie Review: Final Destination Bloodlines

You know all those horror movies I reviewed on this blog, usually 1-2 days after coming back from theaters? Well, every horror fan has either that one movie or that one franchise that brought them to the genre. Me? It's Final Destination. I had gotten the first three from my godfather who burned DVDs and- ...uh... ...I'll stop there before the FBI knocks. Once I started having disposable income, I started buying my own DVDs, so I've helped the Hollywood machine plenty. ANYWAY... 

This series was my introduction to horror, and with Death itself being the antagonist, more of a force than a defeatable entity, it felt a cut above having the bad guy be a serial killer or some monster. This allows the filmmakers to get really damn creative with the killings, doing things you could not reasonably see in other franchises. Everyday items acting together into deadly Rube Goldberg contraptions leading to gruesome ends. I'll spare you the details on the events of the first five films, you'd have to see some of those scenes to believe them. I just know I could write an entire essay about them. These movies will make you paranoid of everything for a little while.

Final Destination Bloodlines is the sixth film in the series, and released about fourteen years after the previous entry in 2011. That's a long-ass gap! The end result had to be worth the wait. And boy was it!

The story

This one begins, as tradition, with a massive disaster where lots of people die. This time, it's in the 60s. Iris (Brec Bassinger) is brought by her boyfriend Paul Campbell to a date at the Skyview, a restaurant/dancefloor at the top of a tall tower looking like Seattle's Space Needle. He intends to propose at the top. She has a secret of her own; she's pregnant with his child. These plans go to waste when the glass floor shatters under the dancers, an explosion sets the place on fire, and the whole thing falls down, with Iris being the apparent last to bite it.

You'd think it was a premonition, but when we cut back to reality, we're in an advanced math class. Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) had dozed off and had the same nightmare that's been plaguing her for weeks now, ending with her waking up screaming in terror. It's too real. All she does know is that the woman in the nightmare is her grandmother Iris, estranged from the rest of the family. Not the only woman to do so; Stefani's mother, who is Iris's daughter, also left when she and her younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones) were younger.

Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered

"Netflix? Never heard of him. Is he from Lutecia? Is he
a distant cousin of Danceremix? Or Pockystix?"

I am a huge fan of the Asterix series. Up here in Quebec, that franchise is such a part of our collective nostalgia that its movies are the must-watch non-Christmas movies around Christmas. I won't defend all of them, some of the older stories and movies haven't aged well. But the franchise is still alive and kicking, even getting a full CGI series released on Netflix on April 30th this year! Even the new books have kept their flair, lampooning modern events.

There are many Asterix video games out there, though if you’re American you may not have heard of most of them due to the series being much more popular everywhere else. Today’s game is Asterix and Obelix XXL: Romastered (also available on GOG), released on October 22nd, 2020 for PS4, XBOne, PC and Switch, and a remaster of a game from 2004 originally released on PS2, GameCube, PC and GBA. This one is more of a platformer, so let’s see how that goes!

Village in Peril

Free knuckle sandwiches for every Roman!

After a day hunting wild boars in the forest, Asterix and Obelix return to a village invaded by Romans and all the villagers gone! One weird guy at the entrance, wearing a Gaul mustache and Roman robes, claims he's a former spy for Julius Caesar who has chosen to help the Gauls. He knows Caesar’s secrets, and will help the two. The villagers have been sent to other places conquered by Rome.

You play as both Asterix and Obelix, but you don’t choose which one you play at any specific moment; most of the time, you’ll be Asterix, unless the situation requires Obelix’s permanent enhanced strength. Base controls on PC: Moving around with WASD, moving the camera with the arrows, and attacking with E. Dash forward with F, or grab a stunned Roman with R and use him to hit other enemies. You can press X to send Dogmatix out to bite an enemy's ass, stunning them.

The game is as classic an early 2000s platformer as can be; jump around, defeat enemies, collect “money”, find hidden secrets. Alright, let’s explain these one at a time. Jump around, well, both Asterix and Obelix can double jump.

In all fairness, it would be weirder if this was an early-00s
platformer where the characters DON'T double jump.

Exploring The Itch.io Collection #3

Even more of this! I promise, it's the last one this month. With this article, we've reached the games that can be finished in 10 minutes.

Experiences

Just kids becoming friends, regardless of species.

Summer Gems: Two young kids, one human girl and one frog, meet on the seaside beach. They share gifts, your character writes to the other, then receives the response. It’s cute, raises a good point about environmentalism, but stops at showing this budding, momentary friendship over three scenes.

Arigatou, Ningen-San!: In this game partly developed by USC Games (of WereCleaner fame), you just arrived in the neighborhood and are tasked by a bird to befriend all the local animals… by petting the Heck out of them with the mouse. No real goal past that, and the only funny thing to this one is how the animals get squished as you “pet” them.

Dawndusk Dream Sewer: In this isometric experience, your character is going down some dream sewers and speaking to the people trapped within. All the way down to some sort of chaotic deity. I didn’t feel much for the esoteric, absurdist discussions in there.

Miles of endless corridors, and not a single bathroom in sight.

Hotel Paradise: Look for your room in a seemingly endless hotel. There is no rhyme or reason as to where the rooms are located, so don’t try to figure it out with logic. Just keep walking through the halls until you finally spot your room number. Apparently, each number is completely personal, no other player will have it (though considering there’s a maximum of 999 rooms, I personally doubt that statement). Very basic gameplay, intriguing concept (and finding your room WILL take a while), but this game doesn’t offer a lot else.

No Wheels Racing: A parody game about a race where none of the cars have wheels. Pick a driver! Pick a car! (There’s only one.) Pick whether you want wheels (not available) or no wheels! Then, it’s off to the races, and all you can do is stay in place, honk, or press Escape to get disqualified! …Yeah, it’s just a quick joke, especially with the build-up to the “race” or how racers honk their horns louder the longer you wait. Silly thing.

And then, of course, judgment gets passed on what you've
made of Heaven based on which folks you've let through.

The Political Compass: Devil’s Labyrinth: A visual novel in which you’re the new hire who must choose whether to send souls to Heaven or to Hell… the latter, with EVISCERATION! The “practice souls” you get are all a bunch of exaggerated stereotypes: The crypto bro, the ultra-rich, the app developer, the reality TV watcher, y’know. Guess the game tries to be comedic, but I didn’t feel like it was particularly funny, and any commentary felt wasted.

for|rest: In this walking simulator, you visit a completely grey, lifeless forest. You can click the mouse button to wave your hand at transparent thorny vines to make them disappear, which causes colors, plants and fauna to reappear in the area. Sometimes, though, a girl may appear instead… can you hear her story? While I appreciate the concept, I think I missed out on the ending because at some point I could no longer find any vines to erase, and so I was seemingly stuck. It’s a good and meaningful idea presented in a very artistic (if low-poly) manner.

All things you can do with ropes and little spheres.
Hey, that's creative!

Il filo conduttore: Italian for “the common thread”. In this experience, all you can do involves strings and little balls. Activate things, make music, see what odd interactions happen. Every scene is something different. You could be excused for thinking most of this was done with live-action objects. Nice little thing, good for at least one playthrough.

Otherside: Is supposed to be a trippy, puzzle-based experience with psychedelic visuals (the page describes it as Myst meets the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey), but I tried playing it thrice and each time, I either got stuck because puzzles were unclear, or a new screen just failed to load (with no way to leave using, say, the Esc key). Ain’t trying it again, nope. Hard pass.

Not sure what this machine is supposed to be, but...
it's all very ominous.

please: A horror/environmental storytelling game in which you are the repairman in a building in an odd… place and setting, is the best I can say. You’re asked to “please” repair stuff downstairs, always machinery that's left unexplained. We never quite know what’s going on, but we do hear sounds by the doors, and we’re left wondering. The ending doesn’t help either, mking things even more ambiguous. Sound design’s great here, graphics are low-res 3D but work great for the desired effect. Recommended!

Conversations With My Anxiety: A visual novel in which the player is on their first date with a woman named Gina, and the date isn’t going entirely as planned; thus, the player’s anxiety butts in to make things more difficult, especially to weigh in on what’s going on. You always have the option to let anxiety win, but there are different bits of text to read depending on which option you select. Accurate depiction of living with anxiety. I bet there’s quite a few possible endings, too. Do check that one, I liked it.

I'm too honest, my response would be "it's a first date, of
course I am." But I'd still have hope the date goes well.

Self-care

Take your time - I know I'll need some time myself to
write down what I want to leave behind.

little boats of farewell: A point-and-click story in which a ghost participates in the ritual of leaving paper boats to float down the river at the end of the year with what the memories they want to leave behind. Along the way, you can talk to the others there, hear what they’re willingly forgetting on the dawn of the new year. You can even pick things off the ground to decorate your boat. At the end, once you’re ready to let your paper boat go, you’re encouraged to write down your own message. Feels therapeutic. For a 10-minute game, this touched me more than I thought it would.

Social reach

A HerpWitch and their weird little critter.
No matter which one it will end up being.

To Be A HerpWitch: A riff on Pokémon created for a Nonbinary Game Jam, you play a nonbinary character who dreams of becoming a HerpWitch, AKA a trainer of Familizards. They are first seen dreaming of the classic “boy or girl?” question from early Pokémon, choosing neither. They get ready for work, then head out. They weren’t set to get their own Familizard, but an unlikely twist of fate leads to them getting one regardless. It’s cute, and I get that it’s short because it was for a game jam, but it does leave one wishing there was more.

down.: Self-described as “a short, somber atmospheric experience about depression, anxiety and the inability to forgive oneself”, this game is just the character walking towards the right and finding notes from her own mind that belittle her and push her to suicide. …I get the point, dealing with those thoughts is rough, but there's almost nothing to gameplay, nothing to interact with, so it feels otherwise uninspired. Maybe don’t play that one if you’re already struggling on that front.

Misophonia is decreased tolerance to certain sounds or what
causes them, hence why the character is struggling to
get past someone blowing their nose.

Escort Yourself Out: An autobiographical game about suffering from eating disorders, anxiety attacks, misophonia, and other trauma-born issues, and learning to live with them. The author made this game for a university thesis, and most of the game is a discussion on her part about how these issues affect her day-to-day life and her studies. The more game-like portions are the author escorting her younger self across a busy store, and you hold down a key to offer comforting words to help her get through all these encounters.

Plain games

Beat that evil witch! You can do it! Good boys!
You're gonna get treats if you win!

Dogs Throwing Swords II: Three Barks To The Wind: A shmup with a clever concept. Three dogs are chosen to fight the witch that has corrupted the woods and the desert. Each dog has a type of attack, the three go through the stage as a group, and you can change their position with Left-shift or their order with Left-Ctrl. Each doggo has their own health, which depletes when they’re hit specifically. Two worlds of two levels each, and two boss fights. With its 16-bit look, this game is adorable. And fun, too! Makes me wish there was more of it.

Bunflower: A Game Boy Color-style game in which your player bunny must collect three pieces of food (namely, plants) before a blizzard hits. You obtain them by helping people around bunny town. It’s super easy, but neat and just the kind of game you could give a kid that’s starting their journey in gaming.

Well, I need food! Just watch me, I'll be back
before the storm. Promise!

Filing this one under "disappointments". Might have
enjoyed, if it didn't bazoo-krash constantly.

Bazookrash: ACAB, am I right? Morlando the bear wants to sleep, but the damn sirens in the distance keep him up. Time to grab the firearms and unleash Hell on the night noise. First-person shooter, aim for the pink cars, leave the civilian blue ones alone. You have a rifle, a gauss and a bazooka. Decent idea and concept, it could have been fun, but the damn thing kept crashing on me.

Stophat: You play as a rich jerk’s hat and must try to land on your owner’s head as many times as possible, though he will start moving to avoid you. A and D to move left and right, S to descend. As another quickly-made GameJam entry, this is as basic as it gets, but… yeah, feels rather meh.

It's got the basics, so there could be a larger game
in the same genre made by the same person someday.

Gigabit: In this 2.5D platformer made in 16 days for a Halloween game jam, you play as a little robot who has to get through six stages with Halloween theming. Each time the robot hits the floor or a wall, little debris come flying out. If you get stuck, hit R to restart the level. Move with A/D or the arrows, jump with W, Up or Space. While enjoyable, it does feel like someone’s first attempt at 2.5D platforming, as some platforms aren’t defined well and there are slight issues with lighting that make some threats hard to spot. But it’s a commendable product, especially if made in this short a timeframe.

INDECT: A platform game about a cyberpunk future. Or, rather, a demo for such a game, as it only contains a tutorial and two levels, the second of which already ramps up the difficulty. Your character can move with the arrows, jump with Space and shoot with alt. Not a lot to get immersed, though it looks promising. Notably, in the second level, new enemies appear when backtracking over a path that didn’t have them before. Unfortunately, the project is on hiatus.

Nigel: A game that homages Nigel the gannet, a real bird with quite the history. You play as Nigel, who becomes a matchmaker for the couples of animals on Mana Island, solving simple puzzles to make them meet. After solving all the puzzles, Nigel gets to pick a partner of his own... a concrete bird statue. Very easy to finish, but it’s the thought that counts.

Now, how to get the two kiwis together...
Kiwi! Kiwi, c'm'ere! There's another kiwi for you!

She's gonna have her step count through the roof
once this night is over.

Night in the Storm: Help Vera the lighthouse keeper seagull through the night in a very faulty lighthouse. Gotta keep the boats safe! Close the window so the bottom floor won’t flood and short-circuit the generator, change the lightbulb every time one burns out, and repair the engine that rotates the light when it also stops. It’s a stressful stormy night! This one is fun, and I thought it was a good thing that you could zoom out to see the whole place at once to keep track of what you must work on. Great-looking sprite art, too.

We're so devoted to the job, we'll even try selling to your dog!

This Call May Be Recorded: You’re a new telemarketer/scam caller annoying people over the phone. Gameplay is split in two parts. The first part has you click the “Stop” button and trying to land into the blue areas over a green bar. The more successful hits you get, the more annoying your pitch is to the person called. They respond with spite, and the second part has you blocking the words from your ears by clicking where they’re coming from: Up, down, left or right. Five callees, with an increasing difficulty level. The last one is GREAT. Loved that game.

A spider in the bathroom. Someone sampling the
wines for free. The homeless guy at the door.
Truly, even for monsters, retail is Hell.

Vampire Night Shift: Designed to also work on Game Boy emulators. You play a vampire who works a night shift at a store. Help the rude customers, stock the shelves, and deal with other supernatural events. Your boss tells you early on to do everything to avoid getting fired, but that never comes up again, as far as I know – though I do suspect some events can happen differently based on your actions. Fun one, I liked it. I love the GB aesthetic, it’s cozy nostalgia.

Akuto: Showdown (formerly, Akuto: Mad World): An isometric multiplayer game (with extra options for single player) where your character must kill every other character in the arena. You can move in eight directions, throw your sword at opponents and NPC enemies alike, try to kill more than you get killed. There seems to be a whole bunch of different environments to fight in, and hazards to encounter, but I lost interest real fast when the NPC and hazards turned out too good against the player.

There's chonk, then there's C H O N K.

Fat Bear Week: A bear awakens for the yearly bingeing before going back to sleep. The bear starts off normal, but after eating enough it’ll turn round and roll around the stage to eat, then keep growing as it eats more. Each stage has a special flower hidden in it, and keeps track of how many of each kind of edible item you caught. There are five bears available, the last of which is unlocked only by eating everything in each of the three stages. This is harmless and easy enough, and I could see this as a quick game for younger kids.

Laser Paddles: Pong, with powerups and lasers! And by lasers, I mean it; the CPU paddle is programmed to shoot as soon as it can, tearing holes into yours. There are lots of powerups on the screen, and those cause balls to bounce around the screen with various effects. There are multiple balls, but all that matters is which side the last ball gets through. Tons of modes that switch up gameplay, possibility for multiplayer, etc. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s exactly what it set out to do, so it’s fine.

This game gets hard fast, AND both the bounce mechanics
and hitboxes are kinda wonky. Nothing to help our pumpkin...

Pumpking: A platformer in which you control a pumpkin along a lengthy continuous stage still split into levels for simplicity. Stomp on opponents, or jump even higher by bouncing on their heads; collect coins, extra hearts, and later down the line, look for keys to unlock the path going down. Nothing too groundbreaking, just a decent quick thing with a Halloween theme. Though I did think the bouncing ability was hit or miss, and that some sections were a little cheap here and there.

And... that's all for now! Might not seem like much, but over three articles, I covered exactly 80 games. Proper long reviews will be coming up soon!