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Category: Weekly Gaming/Media

  • Tomb Raider (2013): A masterclass in Ludonarrative Disonance

    Look up Ludonarrative Dissonance on the internet, and one of the first results you’ll find is from Wikipedia. On it, it defines the term as follows:

    “Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game ’s narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay.”

    So why, 9 years after the game was released, have I decided to bring this term up so long after Tomb Raider (2013)’s release?

    Because Tomb Raider (2013) is the perfect game to introduce any gamer, no matter the background, into this term, and how games can feel disjointed, or even not make sense at all.

    Throughout this video essay I’m going to show you the ways in which Tomb Raider’s plot points are only skin deep, and how you, as a games developer or writer, can get around these issues.

    It’s been on my list of games to play for an age now, but Tomb Raider (2013) always took a back seat of games I must play next due to what I heard about it around its release.
    Whilst successful, memories of the media coverage conjure up words like “uncharted clone” or “graphically pretty”, which, at the time, just didn’t interest me.
    So, 9 years later, in the weird and whacky year that is 2022, I finally sat down and decided to play the game. What did I come away with after 15 hours of 100%ing the game? Continue watching to find out.

    Tomb Raiders Past

    Given that Lara Croft is one of the most iconic gaming characters to have come out in the last 50 years of the medium, for many he dark years almost put an end to her. After the success of Tomb Raider 1-3, Lara stumbled a bit, with many of the sequels reviewing badly, and never keeping up with the market trends.
    Tomb Raider Underworld, released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, saw to it that something had to change. After highs of the previous years, Underworld sold way below expectations, and developers Crystal Dynamics had to change tack.

    Going back to basics meant that Crystal Dynamics could reinvent the series – no longer was Lara a headstrong Tomb Raider that feared nothing and shot down everything with ease, Lara was now a nobody, fresh out of university and learning the ropes of exploration.
    This new angle of the character must have been a breath of fresh air for many back in 2013, with the character having almost 20 years of one image, reinventing her must have felt new and great for many players. But how does it feel in 2022, 9 years after its initial release?

    The Game

    From a gameplay perspective, yeah, Tomb Raider 2013 stands up pretty well. It has great pacing, with lots of downtime to explore and figure out ways through open sections of the map, whilst also having a lot of action to keep you engaged for long stretches of time.
    It’s a fairly linear experience, with a large campaign taking around 10-12 hours to complete if you don’t spend any time looking for collectibles, and another few hours on top of that if you do.
    You’ll soon realise how the games pacing goes along. I’ll summarise it as so:
    * Action scene which forces you to move to a new area (e.g. exploding building requiring you escape, sliding down waterfall)
    * Large open area to explore, with collectibles hidden throughout and enemies
    * Cutscene of bad guys doing something
    * Bad guys see you, you do a massive firefight, then move on to another action scene where you’re forced out of the area and into a new map, repeating it all over again.

    • Action/Cinematic Scene
    • Exploration of new area
    • Story Section
    • Fighting bad guys
    • Repeat

    This can get quite repetitive, but thanks to the game’s 12-15 hour run time it doesn’t, and truth be told you’ll be entertained for most of it.
    I even spent quite a bit of time fast travelling back and forth between sections of the island to get all the collectibles in the end.

    In addition to the game, there are meta quests players may want to participate in whilst they navigate the game. These quests are any of the following:

    • Collectibles
    • Gear levelling up
    • Lara levelling up

    Almost everything you do in the game feeds back into these three systems – with collectibles giving Lara XP to give her new skills, which can range from more efficient killing techniques (e.g. weapon executions), to collectibles being marked on the map and when sensing.

    All of these systems, from the story, to the gameplay, to the progression system, all accumulates to make it feel like you’re constantly making progress,. This is cool whilst you’re playing the campaign, but it all comes at a cost.

    My Issue? The superficiality

    Tomb Raider 2013 is extremely superficial.

    This isn’t unique to Tomb Raider, many games are superficial because they’re a visual medium, showing is better than telling after all.

    The issue is that everything in Tomb Raider is only surface level. Lara gets impaled by a piece of metal? No worries, not going to change the gameplay in any meaningful way. A main character that Lara is close to dies? Who cares? You’ve known this person for 5 minutes and have no idea who they are. Spooky caves with lots of corpses and blood? Where did all the bodies come from if the island is basically lost and impossible to get too?

    Every action, every scene, every event is meant to feel big, deep, and have consequences, but they never do. They all clash, with you being told something is meant to be bad, but two seconds later the opposite happens.

    I can give 3 examples of this, which will go into mild spoilers, but will get the point across.

    1. Lara is injured many times throughout the game, in ways that would kill a normal person. Each time these injuries happen, the game properly pushes how painful this is, with camera angles and screams from Lara trying to convey the traumatic experience she’s going through. The issue is, two seconds later when you regain control of Lara, you’re then able to climb, shoot, and do anything you like no different than before.
    2. There are many characters that are apparently close to Lara that perish throughout the story. I say apparently, because other than 2 minutes on the intro, we never see these characters again, so when they die the game makes a big deal of it, but you, as the player, just shrug it off and cannot find a reason as to why we should care about this persons death.
    3. Throughout the campaign Lara is constantly put into situations where she needs to go through piles of dead bodies, with one section having her literally dive into a pool of blood. The issue is, the campaign makes it clear that the island is both hard to find, but also impossible to escape, meaning it makes no sense as to where all these bodies came from.

    Taken by themselves, each time you encounter one of these issues it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when taken as a whole (and trust me, by the end of the game, it’ll really be in your face how hypocritical the game is), you can’t shake the feeling that they could have made Tomb Raider so much more consistent.

    It’s probably the only issue I have with the game, but it’s so major it genuinely takes me away from saying this is a must play game, to a “meh, it was alright”.

    It’s as if the developers had a bunch of cool ideas, but never actually thought about whether they gelled well together, or whether they even made sense for the consistency of the game.

    All of these issues I’ve laid out in this section didn’t even have to be issues! Gamer’s brains are used to suspending disbelief in order to play a game; we learn the rules of the world, and that becomes our framework for how this game’s world (and rules) work. This example just literally came off the top of my head, but hear me out:
    At the beginning of the game, Lara has managed to escape some people that have captured her, and finds herself alone, in the forest, freezing and wanting food.
    The game makes a big deal of this, explaining how you need to hunt animals for food and xp, and that the warmth of the campfire is essential for Lara’s survival.
    The issue is, this is literally forgotten two minutes later, and this mechanic of killing animals, or finding warmth, never, ever happens again, or is even essential. Lara will climb snow covered mountains, be in massive windstorms, swim in the ocean, and never once be cold again.
    This didn’t even need to be an issue – take the first part out of the campaign of Lara freezing and the player having to find warmth, and that’s it, done, the player will accept that Lara’s lack of clothes are fine – they’re just her costume for the rest of the game.

    Conclusion

    So, 9 years later, is Tomb Raider worth a play?

    Sure – if you reckon you’re the kind of gamer that is able to switch their brain off and go along for the ride then you can’t go wrong with Tomb Raider. 9 Years later it’s graphics still holds up well, and whilst its story isn’t anything to shout home about, you’ll find it an enjoyable romp that does the job. Pick it up for a fiver and you really can’t go wrong, just don’t go expecting some masterpiece – hopefully the sequels to this qualm any issues I have.

  • Your Guide to Conquering The Welsh Mountain “Pen Y Fan”

    Your Guide to Conquering The Welsh Mountain “Pen Y Fan”

    So, you want to climb Pen Y Fan, Wales’ second highest mountain? You, young traveller, have come to the right place!

    In this guide I’ll walk you through the easiest (and cheapest!) way to climb the ominous mountain, and what to do to best prepare for the trek up 886 metres.

    Stuff to bring

    Before you make your way to Pen Y Fan, make sure to pack the following in your backpack:

    — Snacks and food (Make sure to read the “Calories” section)
    — Blister Plasters (Unless you use boots you’re used to)
    — Boots (Do not wear normal shoes, you will slip on the way back down)
    — Waterproof coat (Not for the climb itself – you’ll sweat enough from that!)
    — Plenty of water / Drinks
    — Suncream
    — A phone (Not 100% necessary, but useful for the trek and knowing where you parked)

    Calories

    As mentioned in the “Stuff to bring” section, calories should be a big consideration for you when trekking up Pen Y Fan. To show you why, take a look at my calorific burning in the 4.12km it takes to get to Pen Y Fan:

    As you can see, my heart rate was almost consistently 176bpm, with my total calories almost totalling 1000.

    I know for some it may not be much, but after 6 months of lockdown, that increase in elevation certain takes its toll, and you may find the same, regardless of how healthy and fit you are.

    The Guide

    Driving from Brecon (Due to a lockdown in the region of Caerphilly, meaning driving further north to come back down), I first saw the mighty mountains to my west, thinking they were the Pen Y Fan that I would be climbing. Alas, I was wrong, as Pen Y fan was 200 metres taller, with the reason I couldn’t see it being because the clouds were constantly covering the top of the mountain.

    From Brecon, you’ll wanna use the following postcode:

    LD3 8NL

    To find the free carpark available:

    Be warned! the car park is on the right side of the road (West), which, from Brecon you’ll be driving on the left. Note this as I accidentally almost drove into the country arms, which is not a public parking spot.

    N.B. This car park may expand and require payment in the next few years.

    Once parked, you can make use of the food van if you want, but from here you should be able to see the entrance to the hike you’re about to make, along with some useful information on the mountains before you:

    From here, just follow the track. If you’re lucky, and it’s not too cloudy, you’ll see brilliant views looking back behind you at times like the following:

    Once you happen upon a little stream, you’re about a quarter/ one third of your way up the mountain, so keep up with it!

    Past this, you’ll see nothing but grass grass and more grass (and of course loads of sheep!).

    After another 45 minutes of walking you’ll reach the top of the mountain you’ve been climbing. Unfortunately, if you have a cloudy day like I did, you’ll think this is Pen Y Fan, until you note that there is no statue to say it’s Pen Y Fan!

    Go past this hill, and continue onwards, opposite to where you climbed, and whilst you’ll notice it’s going downhill, it won’t for long.

    Whilst this hill will look like it never ends, you’ll have to trust me, you don’t have much longer to go!

    Once at top, you’ll be greeted with the following:

    Which, be warned! Your milage may vary on what you can see! It took me half an hour and a huge amount of luck to get any pictures without clouds, so just be warned, your milage may vary!

    If, like me, you happen to come up on a day where the clouds are constantly bombarding you, this is why you’ll need the water proof coat – every single item of clothing, and every single thing you have out, will get soaked.

    On the walk back down, please be careful – the rocks are a great way to get up, but on the way down they can be really slippy. I saw so many people in trainers on their way back down slip and trip.

    Another note on the climb back down – do note that there’s a point where the paths diverge – one way stays close to the edge of the mountain, the other appears to go “in land”. You’ll need to take the latter if you parked where I said at the start of this guide. I note all of this as it was so cloudy I could barely see a few meters ahead of myself, so was unsure which route to take. Hopefully this helps a few of you!

    Final Thoughts

    For a first time hike, you really cannot go wrong with Pen Y Fan.

    In total, the whole walk takes around 3 hours, depending on how long you spend on top of the mountain. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but be warned, don’t wear new shoes! To say blisters were an issue after the walk is an understatement!

    I hope this guide has helped, and go enjoy yourself!

  • Cat Quest (Switch)

    Cat Quest (Switch)

    You know what – I saw Cat Quest at EGX before moving to Canada, and even then, I knew I’d love the game before I’d even started playing it. Given it’s now been 2 years since I laid my eyes upon it, why do I bring that up? Cause the game is just that damn good.

    Yes, I waited far too long to play Cat Quest, but considering it was only £3 on the Nintendo eShop recently, I thought why the hell not buy it – a whole day later, I had completed the game and couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the second game in the series.

    The first boss fight wasn’t hard – but then I was pretty over powered for it

    Yeah, it’s an old game, but the gameplay of Cat Quest really holds up well. The controls are simple, move your cat around a top down map and attack with either physical weapons, or magic, and dodge roll occasionally, but it’s the gameplay loop that you can do with these controls that truly holds up.

    Just like any other RPG, you defeat some enemies, get some XP, and level up, completing side quests and main campaign quests to level up even more until you reach the end of the game. But, the core of Cat Quest is so compelling, and it’s simple yet great controls so fun to play with, that you’ll get hooked and play the game to it’s conslusion in not many sittings.

    You see, with simple controls that every enemy also adheres too, you can cheese higher level opponets with relative ease. Towards the start of the game there’s a forbidden woods, that, should you enter, you’ll find you get killed rather quickly by the overpowered enemies lurching there. But, should you have enough patience, you can whittle them down, dodging at the right times and in turn, once defeated, managing to level up multiple times just from one enoucnter.

    The action is genuinely fantastic, and fast paced

    Whilst that may sound dodgy, I for one love games that give you an inherent advantage through learning the controls and then taking advantage of them. There’s nothing wrong with killing most enemies on the main campaign path with one hit should you have earnt that in the first place. Cheesing stronger enemies isn’t neccessarily cheating, if anything a single mistake can be the difference between life and death, so you earned the ability to be over powered.

    I got a bit ahead of myself there though didn’t I? To begin with, what is Cat Quest?

    Cat Quest is a top-down RPG that has you take control of a cat who’s sister has been kidnapped by a powerful cat sorcerer. Surprisingly, you cat soon finds out that it is able to weild magic, and so your charming adventure begins on trying to save your sister, whilst exploring the cat-punning world of Felingard.

    You can choose to *almost* go anywhere you like from the offset, allowing you to take part in side-quests, new caves with random loot or even just explore and defeat enemies to level up faster. I say almost, as some parts of the land are locked off until certain campaign abilities are unlocked, which isn’t too much of a hassle, and helps the player level up beforehand.

    On paper this doesn’t sound like too much, but as I explained before, the simplicity, when combined with the cute and charming visuals, and extremely responsive controls, makes for an extremely enjoyable time within the game, and one I seriously couldn’t take my eyes off for a day.

    I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think much of the story, and didn’t really pay too much attention to the side quests and text about the world which helped to flesh it out, as they were somewhat boring, but if anything that speaks volumes to how much I loved the game even if it had a terrible story (which is usually one of my favourite aspects of a game).

    Yeah, the puns are everywhere

    As aforementioned, the graphics are cute and charming, with the animations tying flawlessly to the combat system, with you never feeling that you died due to the game at all, it was always your fault for not dodging soon enough.

    Sound wise, there’s not much here, and CAt Quest is fairly basic, but not that it matters too much – if anything I’d gladly recommend playing the game whilst listening to a podcast you’ve been meaning to, or even an audiobook – the games enjoyable enough without having to take up all your concentration.

    So overall, hopefully you can ascertain from the tone of this overall review, I thoroughly enjoyed Cat Quest, and even went on to recommend it to 3 other switch owners, who then purchased it instantly given it’s cheap and reasonable price.

    If you have a switch (or any other platform the game is on for that matter), I’d hugely recommend Cat Quest. It’s cute, enjoyable, and a bloody charming game. God only knows how much I’m looking forward to playing Cat Quest 2, which was purchased instantly as a result of Cat Quest 1.

    4/5

  • The Pedestrian (PC)

    Yo all, forgot to post this a while back, but I actually wrote a review for VGChartz.com again on The Pedestrian – a brilliant little platformer game for the pc.

    You can read it at the link below:

    https://www.vgchartz.com/article/442423/the-pedestrian-pc/

    Til next time!

  • The Touryst (Switch)

    The Touryst (Switch)

    Preface: It’s definitely been a while since I’ve written a review on this site, but considering I need to get back on track, here is a game I completed over the weekend and thought would be cool to write about. I don’t know how the quality of my reviews will be after so long of not writing in this style, but the length and quality do not matter – all that matters is getting back into the hang of things.

    The Nintendo Switch is genuinely such a marvel of a console to behold. Given it’s tiny size, the quality of the games available on it never seizes to amaze me, both graphically and from a gameplay perspective. It’s been rare to actually find a bad game on the platform (even if they do exist).

    Thankfully, The Touryst was another such game that managed to fit into the former camp, with a charming story, and genuinely stunning graphics, this was one such game I felt compelled to write about.

    Partying on Ibiza has never been so fun…

    You start the game off as a brand new tourist to a new island (self-named Touryst Island), and from here it’s your job to discover the core tenant of the game – that is to explore. Upon meeting some locals who task you with unlocking a monument, you’re then tasked with doing the same across many other islands (gotten to by tour guides), and solving the mystery of these monuments whilst meeting inhabitants of each location and taking part in mini games.

    It’s a simple story, and simple premise, but one the art style and gameplay genuinely make the most of in it’s 5 hour playtime. I found myself revisitng locations, and 100 percenting the game during this time, wanting to see everything The Touryst had to offer.

    From the get go, you’d be genuinely forgiven for being floored by the graphics on display. The voxel art style may not be to everyone’s liking, but the fact The Touryst manages to look as clean and gorgeous as it is whilst running on Switch hardware is an achievement in itself. The squarish-look doesn’t prevent the world from feeling alive either, with palm tree’s swaying in the wind, waves hitting the beach, and so much grass being rendered and swaying it’s a joy to behold.

    All the different arcade games

    The variety of gameplay on offer is also a joy. At one point in the game you’re tasked with beating an arcade player’s high scores, which then entails playing different arcade games which could be whole new games in and of themselves, from an f-zero clone to breakout, it’s pretty damn awesome. Then there’s the little side objectives like taking pics around the islands, and doing challenges like beating surfers on a surfing competition. You’d be hard pressed to not find something you do enjoy throughout your playtime.

    Controls wise you may get a little frustrated with The Touryst. You have your jump, and eventually buy the ability to hold onto ledges, double jump, and sprint – it doesn’t sound like much, but there are many times where you don’t feel properly in control of the character, with simple jumps being missed, or sprinting stopping for no apparent reason.

    A new monument appears

    That’s not to say the controls weren’t the only irritation for me – for one, the game can be very annoying at times due to it’s strict camera angles. There were many instances where I’d die by falling in some ruins due to the camera angle not properly conveying where my character was in relation to the platforms around.

    Then there’s the bosses which you have to take down at times – due to the weird collision detection at times, I’d have some bosses which would have to be run into to defeat, but a few times I’d glide off them, making me believe running into them wasn’t the way to defeat them – causing many dozens of minutes staring at the screen wondering how I’d defeat the enemy.

    Don’t we all Tourists, don’t we all…

    Overall, for £17 I’d recommend the game. If you’d have asked me a few years ago whether The Touryst was worth £17, I may have said no, but after spending the best part of a year making a book and charging £10 for it, and for an (mostly) enjoyable 5 hours with gorgeous graphics, I’d say get it. It’s definitely worth a try, and I genuinely look forward to what the developers at Shin’en Multimedia come up with in the future.

    4/5

  • Weekly Gaming: The Station (PC) Review

    Weekly Gaming: The Station (PC) Review

    Hey all,

    So you recall how I said I was working on some reviews that were under embargo? This is one such game. The Station was pretty nifty, if a little short, with the ending being guessed by myself within the first 15 minutes of the game.

    You can read my full impressions on the game below:

    http://www.vgchartz.com/article/272495/the-station-pc/

    So apologies I’m behind schedule, but as I said before, I will definitely ensure that before the end of the year I’ve reviewed 52 games.

    Until next week!

    – Dan

  • A little update

    Yo all!

    Just a little update – whilst I have indeed been keeping up with my one game a week scheme, you unfortunately haven’t seen a review on here in a while as the games I reviewed/completed are well before their release date, meaning they’re all embargoed. Rest assured that once the embargoes are up, they’ll all be posted on here, meaning I’ll definitely have 52 game reviews on the site by the years end.

    In other news, I’ve been hard at work on my popcorn simulator game, and am quite happy with the progress made. I think it should be done soon (says every games developer ever), so will post more details in the coming weeks, but otherwise, I’m excited!

    Hope you’re all well, and until next time, have a great week!

    – Dan

  • Weekly Gaming: The Mind’s Eclipse (PC)

    Weekly Gaming: The Mind’s Eclipse (PC)

    Hi all!

    This week, I look into the new game The Mind’s Eclipse – a sci-fi visual novel game by the new studio, Mind’s Eclipse Interactive.

    It has to be said that whilst some elements of the game were repetitive (e.g. the layout of the rooms), the rest of the game, such as it’s world buidling and plot, were stunning.

    You can read my full impressions on the game using the link below:

    http://www.vgchartz.com/article/272273/the-minds-eclipse-pc/

    Hope you have a great week!

    – Dan

  • Weekly Gaming: It’s Quiz Time (Xbox One)

    Weekly Gaming: It’s Quiz Time (Xbox One)

    It’s been a while since I last played a quiz game, especially one that I can play with family and friends. In fact, it’s thanks to my friends that It’s Quiz Time even come on my radar at all. After a great catch up around their house they proceeded to ask me if I enjoy quiz games and whether I’d be interested in playing one on the xbox, with my iPhone as the controller. Intrigued I jumped at the idea, and proceeded to have a great time answering questions and losing terribly, all in the name of catching up with old friends and having a good time.

    Fast forward a few weeks and another set of friends were wondering what we could do at a meet up. Thinking back, I recalled it’s quiz time, and how it’d be really useful at this encounter due to it’s control scheme of using each players mobile phone as the personal controller. So, £15 later we had bought the game and within another half an hour we were all playing it whilst drinking the night away.

    So what is It’s quiz time? As can probably be told by my introduction and the game’s title, it’s a quiz game for the Xbox One, with the main premise of the game being to download a standalone app on your respective phone, and then answer the question accordingly without no one else knowing. It’s Quiz Time comprises of over 25,000 questions, so it’s rare you’ll see the same question twice. An advantage the constant internet connection employs.

    As should now be obvious, I love the fact that each player uses their mobile phone as the controller. It makes It’s Quiz time feel all the more personal, especially since other players can’t see what answers you’re giving until it’s already on the TV. The fact as well that you each have your own usernames and the AI host recognises you from previous games just adds the cherry on the cake on personalising your experience. For example, in games where we had someone older than the rest, the AI would consistently comment on their age, saying they were a little older.

    But, a quiz game is only as good as it’s questions, and thankfully, It’s Quiz Time has done a fantastic job of customising the questions to your age group. For example, if you were to put your age as 60, your choice of questions could be anything from the last 60 years, but should you say you’re younger then you’ll only get more recent questions from pop culture. This differentiator makes the game so much more enjoyable, especially since you get to always feel like you’re participating in the game, regardless of your age or knowledge.

    The rounds of questions are pretty cool, and have enough variety that the game is a joy to play everytime. Some rounds require you deciding whether one player will be able to answer a question correctly, whilst others are general intelligence for everyone. It’s quite a nice variety, and is definitely enough to keep the game entertaining after quite a few replays.

    The mobile app is nice and responsive, and whilst it sucks that the app has to be connected to the internet rather than directly to the xbox itself, it does the job well. I could complain that it’s not like “That’s you”, which took advantage of the unique features mobile phones bring to consoles. I suppose that’s what you get for a cheap game, and one dedicated to quizzes and quizzes alone.

    So overall, if you need a party game to entertain guests, you can’t go wrong with It’s Quiz Time. It has to be said that this new trend of playing party games using mobile phones on a common console is something of an amazing invention. Almost everyone these days has a games console, and being able to sit around it with your phone and have a laugh is fantastic. So all in all, I enjoyed It’s Quiz Time, and would recommend it to anyone, especially due it’s low cost.

    4/5

  • Weekly Gaming: A good Snowman is Hard to Build (iOS)

    Weekly Gaming: A good Snowman is Hard to Build (iOS)

    Like clockwork, it’s another friday, so that means another game to review! This week I take a look at A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, a game I bought when it was on sale due to a snow day here in the UK. So without further ado, here’s my thoughts on the game.

    First up, AGSIHTB grabs your attention from the offset due to it’s absolutely charming design, and sweet animation. No matter how long you play the game, you’ll consistently be surprised at how cute the game is, especially given how few assets are on display here. Each snowman/woman you successfully create has its own unique look, leading you to believe they have their own personalities, despite them being technically inanimate objects. It’s charming, and down right amazing in your entire time with the game.

    So, I should probably at this point talk about the game’s core loop. So here’s to elevator pitch: AGSIHTB is a puzzle game where you must explore a maze, creating snowpeople as you go along. Each section of the maze will be a different shaped room, which restricts you in your ability to create the snowpeople, leading you to think of different ways to the solution. Each room usually starts off with 3 snowballs – roll a snowball over a patch of snow and it’ll create a slightly larger boulder. Roll once more and you’ll get the maximum size. You must pile 1 small, 1 medium, and 1 large snowball on top of each other to finish a room, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

    You see, medium sized snowballs CANNOT touch another piece of snow without becoming bigger, meaning you’re constantly watching and analysing rooms to see how you can make 1 large boulder, whilst avoiding snow to ensure the others don’t get any bigger. This complication can be irritating as hell at times, but the feeling of elation you get when solving a difficult room is exhilarating, enough to keep me playing throughout one day to the games completion.

    Outside of building snowpeople, there’s not much more to do around the environment. You can sit on benches, hug completed snowpeople, and look through telescopes to see the whole map, but other than that, you’re stuck with just solving puzzles.

    There’s not much to say in regards to the music – it’s cute, and is there, but otherwise, you’re more than welcome to play the game on silent on your mobile, or whilst listening to an audiobook. I personally played the game whilst watching youtube videos, which was perfect, as I was able to execute a guess at a puzzle, and whilst the person was animated in doing that action, I could then continue watching the TV.

    There’s no story to speak off – you wonder around, create snowpeople who each have names and different accessories, and finish the game once you’ve completed each puzzle. There’s more after you’ve completed it all, but I shan’t go into that as I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

    So overall, I know I haven’t written much, but that’s because AGSIHTB is to the point and genuinely lovely to play. Some would say the lack of anything else to do would be a detriment to the game, but I feel it made AGSIHTB all the more better for being a purely cute puzzle game. If you fancy a game on the go, and love puzzle games based on moving things around a given space, then A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build is the game for you.

    4/5

  • Weekly Gaming: Fast RMX (Switch)

    Weekly Gaming: Fast RMX (Switch)

    It’s been a while since I’ve played a fast, arcade racing game, and for the first time in a while, I didn’t play Fast RMX purely to review it within a fast timeline for VGChartz.com. You see, since first getting the Switch I’ve been clamouring for games I can play on the nifty handheld – it sucks having a highly capable machine with next to no games to actually play on it. So from the offset, Fast RMX caught my attention, with me adding it to my wishlist when I first set eyes on it. Thankfully, with it just being the holiday season and with it being New Year sales, Fast RMX came down in price, instantly prompting me to download the gorgeous and fast racer.

    First things first – it has to be said that Fast RMX is a perfect portable game. The short stages (each about 2-3 minutes in length) as well as the fast championships makes for a fantastically portable game, one that game be played in fast spurts and one that easily beats most of the mobile games out there. The shortness of levels works massively in the games favour, especially when it comes to losing – you see, in most games, should I lose a race I’d be annoyed and rarely want to come back to it, due to the sheer length of the course I’d have to drive around once again. Not the case with Fast RMX, where failing a race or even championship just requires another couple of minutes to try again. I found this aspect of the game hugely gratifying, especially since it alleviates any frustration you may have with the game.

    Graphically, Fast RMX is a stunner, especially for such a tiny portable console like the Nintendo Switch. There are times where the presentation/polish lets the game down mind you, especially when it comes to the dynamic resolution going extremely low (resulting in a blurry image at the start of races), but overall when the games actually being played, Fast RMX is a stunning game to behold. Light rays, particles effects, and all manner of great and large environments are an absolute joy to behold, and easily justifies the games price despite how small some of it’s levels may be.

    It’d be hard to talk about a story, mainly due to the fact there isn’t one – you merely pick championship, jump into a specific race, and choose a ship. A few button presses and you’re in the game, with no context as to the world this game takes place in, nor whether there’s any reason for the races taking place. Not to say Fast RMX needs a story – far from it, it’s more than capable of sustaining your attention without any reasons given for racing, I just thought I’d point out that you’re merely getting an arcade racer through and through.

    So, how does one race in Fast RMX? well, being something of a Wipeout clone, you simply proceed to press and hold A to accelerate,  press X to switch the colour of your engines, and finally press the right shoulder button to use your boost that you collect around levels . That’s all there is to it. This simplicity in controls is both freeing, allowing you to concentrate on racing alone, but also annoying to some degree. You see, as you go around the stages, there are some times it’s all but impossible to actually catch up to, and overtake other drivers on the track. No matter what you do, they’ll always be ahead of you, which is irritating as hell. It’d have been nice if there were weapons to grab on the stages, for example a homing missile or anything to just try and get the upperhand, but alas you’re stuck just watching AI overtake you forever more.

    As previously alluded to, there are some ways of getting ahead of opponents in races. For example, change the colours of your engines to the same as panels on the floor and you’ve got yourself an instant boost, one that doesn’t fill your boost meter, but helps you get ahead. Spread throughout the stages are also little balls of energy that fill up your boost meter – collect them and use all your boost at once, or use them instantly, it’s completely up to you. I found that whilst this simplicity is pretty cool, as previously stated it can be down right annoying too, especially when you’ve used all your boosts yet your opponents are all seemingly faster than you.

    It goes without saying, but the vast majority of the time a racing game is only as good as it’s soundtrack, and in Fast RMX’s case, it’s certainly got that going for it. I found myself loving each new stage’s music, so much so that I ended up tracking down the soundtrack on soundcloud and have listened to it well past completing the game. To say some stages become Better due to the soundtrack is an understatement – many would be downright forgettable if it wasn’t there.

    So all in all, am I glad I finally bit the bullet nad purchased Fast RMX? Yep, it’s certainly one hell of a game to showcase what the Nintendo Switch is capable of, and goes one step further in getting me to play the console even more, even going so far as to call it my go-to gaming device. Should you own a Switch, by all means buy the game at full price, and you’re in for a treat if you managed to get it in the sale like myself.

    4/5

  • Weekly Gaming – Crash Bandicoot N’sane Trilogy (PS4)

    Weekly Gaming – Crash Bandicoot N’sane Trilogy (PS4)

    I apologise that this is a day late! It’s always hard to start the year if you haven’t prepared accordingly, and this week was no exception. Being 3 games in one, Crash Bandicoot Remastered was always going to be a struggle to finish, and as I write this I have two worlds left in the final game. So whilst I would usually make a point of completing every game I review, here I don’t feel so bad as I 1. played the games when they first came out in the 90’s, and 2. I feel I’ve played enough of the games to get a feel for the quality of the overall package.

    So without further ado! Here’s my impressions/review of Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy!

    Nostalgia is most definitely a weird quality we all seem to share. We look back on our childhood memories with awe, and proceed to place many products and items we cherished at that age on a pedestal, so much so that many of us won’t let anything bad be said about the things that made us who we are today. Usually, developers and many executives across the world remake games from our past for the crash grab (extremely likely that was the reason here too), but sometimes a remake/remaster is done for more legitimate reasons. In this case, Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy not only shows a new generation of gamers how groundbreaking and fun the original Crash game’s were, but also shows how far we have come in the graphical department.

    Crash N’sane trilogy manages to walk a fine line between completely remaking the original trilogy from the 90’s, whilst upping the whole game in resolution and graphical fidelity, all whilst being relatively cheap for how much content is on the disk – a rarity for games of this generation, and one that is certainly welcome considering how many games are out there these days. On the one hand it’s understandable – the developers (Vicarious Visions) didn’t have to plan and create anything from scratch – they already had the main games to work from and merely had to recreate it all, but considering the shear breadth of content present in N’sane trilogy it’s surprising Activision allowed the game to be released at £25 at all.

    So, has anything changed from the original trilogy? As far as I can tell, no, next to everything you remember from the original games is here, from the secret trick to getting 10 lives by jumping on the polar bar in Crash 2, to the ridiculous bridge level in Crash 1 – everything is here and working (almost) as you remember it. I say almost, as the developers have changed the collision detection on crash, meaning some jumps are harder than they used to be.

    The reason being the original Crash games on PS1 used polygonal collision detection, meaning the (almost) square components of crash made him definitively stand on a platform or not. If your foot was barely touching the edge of a cliff, you’d be on it. In the N’Sane trilogy this has changed to a pill shape collision detection, meaning should you be on the edge of a cliff, you’ll notice Crash slide off. It may not sound like a big change, but it makes all the difference when you’re actively trying to precisely navigate across the aforementioned bridge, all whilst making sure you don’t jump too far to fall down and die.

    Graphically, the game is astonishing to look at. I may make the pixar comparison a lot when talking about a game’s graphical prowess, but man oh man does it apply here. Whilst there’s not much on the screen at all times, what is there it’s extremely detailed, with individual grass blades and boxes all looking as detailed as something you would see in a pixar movie. I suppose it’s to be expected – if the Crash trilogy was able to run beautifully on a PS1 with blockey level design and blockey character models, then adding more geometry and better shaders/textures would certainly be possible on a console easily 1000x more powerful than the first.

    The graphics aren’t the only thing that’s had an upgrade. The voice acting and sound have all had major upgrades, with the voice acting being easily the stand out feature of the two. Each time a character pops up to talk to crash you get a new sense of fidelity to the conversation, with it being well above the voice acting of the original trilogy. It may not be a big component of the game, but certainly adds a level of polish to N’sane trilogy to make you happy with your purchase.

    One of the best minor changes to have come in the re-release is the collecting of gems. In the original trilogy should you have died after obtaining a hidden gem you’d have lost that gem and would have to redo the whole level. With N’sane trilogy once you gain a gem, you have it, no matter what happens in the level (unless you game-over or quit of course). These minor improvements definitely improve the gameplay of crash, and ensure you don’t feel anger or irritation from your mistakes; you simply brush yourself off and try again.

    Overall, it’s a fantastic package, and one I would hugely recommend owning if you have a PS4 and need some games to increase your library. It may not be too different to the originals (some may see that as a detriment), but what’s here is splendid, and is certainly a great way to relive your memories in glorious 4K.

    4/5

  • 2017 Year in Review

    2017 Year in Review

    So once again we’ve completed another orbit around the Sun, and due to this special time of year it’s time to look back and see what I’ve accomplished in those last 365 days. I must admit, I’m in two minds as to how much I’ve done – on the one hand I’ve travelled more than ever before, and produced more content and brilliant photo’s than ever before, BUT some of my achievements were not on my to-do list from the beginning of the year, so I’m unsure how good this will look. Off the top of my head though this is what I’ve been doing:

    Visited 6 Countries

    Yep! This year it appears as though I was a jet-setter, with myself going to the following six countries:

    • Japan
    • Norway
    • Denmark
    • The Netherlands
    • Bulgaria
    • Austria

    I spent a combined total of 30 days outside of the UK, which is fantastic in my opinion, as the further I get away from this place the better!

    Completed and Reviewed 52 Games

    Another year another weekly gaming! Whilst there were a few weeks where I forgot to schedule things, I did indeed complete 52 games this year and managed to review every single one of them. My list of completions can be seen below:

    Ratchet and Clank
    The Order 1886
    Gears of War 4
    Superhot
    Mirrors Edge: Catalyst
    Lego Jurassic World
    Star Wars Battlefront
    Knee Deep
    Leaving Lyndow
    The Videokid
    Sniper Elite 4
    Halo Wars 2
    Call of Duty Infinite Warfare
    Zelda Breath of the Wild
    Snake Pass
    Shovel Knight
    The Witness
    Late Shift
    Yooka-Laylee
    PuyoPuyo Tetris
    Little Nightmares
    Kamiko
    Killer is Dead
    Tokyo 42
    Virginia
    Jotun
    Tekken 7
    Monument Valley 2
    Get Even
    Tales from the Borderlands
    Valiant Hearts
    Pokemon Moon
    Refunct
    Super Mario Run
    Submerged
    Sonic Mania
    Subsurface Circular
    Mario + Rabbids
    Call of Duty: Ghosts
    Songbringer
    Unchartered 4
    Cuphead
    Jettomero
    Forza 7
    Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens
    Super Mario Odyssey
    Costume quest 2
    Sonic forces
    Bound
    Grow up
    Super Lucky’s Tale
    Doki Doki Literature Club

    Watch out for my GOTY article in the next couple of days!

    Read 24 Books

    Due to other time commitments, this is increasingly getting harder, but I managed to achieve this once again thanks to Audible. So without further ado, here’s a list of the literature I managed to get through in the last 12 months:

    Wait but Why: Elon Musk
    1984
    Human Universe
    Steve Jobs
    Deep Work
    Linux Exam Book
    Aliens (Jim-alkhalili)
    The Brain: The Story of you
    User Interface Design for Programmers
    Elon Musk Biography
    The Long Earth
    Spelunky (Boss Fight Books)
    Dangerous – Milo
    The Anti-Procrastination Book
    Reality is Broken – Why games make us better
    Video Game Story-telling
    Surviving AI
    The Long War
    The Long Mars
    The great gatesby
    The long utopia
    Metal gear solid
    The watchmaker of filigree street
    SPQR

    To add to this (but not included in the list) I also read the following Manga:

    One Punch Man 1
    One Punch Man 2
    One Punch Man 3
    One Punch Man 4
    One Punch Man 5
    One Punch Man 6
    One Punch Man 7
    One Punch Man 8
    One Punch Man 9
    One Punch Man 10
    One Punch Man 11

    (shit… that’s a lot of One Punch Man).

    Watched 28 Movies

    Yep, another year, another 24 (or more!) movies. This year I watched quite a few classics, but easily my biggest disappointment was the latest Star Wars – so much so that even when watching the film me and Lucy couldn’t help but turn to each other in awe at how shit some of the scenes were. Regardless, here’s all the films I managed to watch in 2017:

    The Killing Joke
    FFXV Kingslave
    Burn After Reading
    O Brother Where Art Thou
    Steve Jobs
    Fargo
    Doctor Strange
    Bad Grandpa
    Allegiant
    A Serious Man
    A Garden From Words
    Hurricane Bianca
    Grown Ups 2
    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
    Wonder Woman
    Batman Lego Movie
    Logan
    Spiderman: Homecoming
    Dunkirk
    Fantastic Beasts and where to find them
    Blade Runner
    Paprika
    Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle
    Thor: Ragnorok
    Now you See me 2
    The Dark Tower
    Star Wars: The Last Jedi
    Baby Driver

    Produced 16 Videos on Youtube

    This one’s come as a surprise to me actually, with me only realising I had done this just now as I went back to my channel and counted all the videos I had made.

    I’m happy that I’ve come up with a style for my thumbnails, and will continue to improve the quality of my uploads – with lots of animations and actual formulaic structure that I can consistently rely on in the future – making it faster and easier to create more videos.

    Overall I’m quite happy with this goal, as my expectation was that I had done a lot less. Regardless of this, I’ll definitely continue to push out content, and hopefully pick up a few new subscribers along the way!

    If you want to view some of these videos, you can by all means visit my channel below:

    https://www.youtube.com/caesoose

    Attended 2 Game Jams and Created 2 Prototype Games

    Yep! This year was the year that I finally thought fuck it, and met some people at games jams. First up there was the JanJam in Oxford at the beginning of the year where I helped contribute towards “Beleaf”, which you can read about below on Rosa’s website:

    http://rosacarbo.co.uk/janjam17

    It was a delight to meet my fellow jamers, so much so that it made me realise how little I knew and how much I had to improve in games development

    Secondly, I attended Splashjam 2017 in Norway – a fantastic experience that took place above the arctic circle. To say it was a trip of a lifetime is an understatement – I look forward to going back to Norway once again in the future, and will take what I learned from the experience and use it in spades over the coming years.

    You can view more details about the game I created (Earth 2167) at the link below:

    https://itch.io/jam/splash-2017

    Started work on my second game

    Whilst not complete, and with constant set-backs, I have indeed started working on my second game. This one is based on Nintendo’s Streetpass game, whereby players would earn an amount of coins based on how many steps they have walked on a given day. Using iOS, and an extension available on the app store to access apple’s Healthkit data, I’ve managed to come up with a prototype of a player calculating how many steps they’ve done, and then getting an amount of coins based on those steps. Players can then spend this money on puzzle pieces, of which the completed puzzles will be my own landscape photography.

    The players stats and whether they’ve collected a puzzle before or not is all stored within a local db (all of this is new technology to me, so it’s taken some time to get used to it all). I’m hoping to have the finished product available on iOS sometime in 2018.

    In 2018, I’ll make sure to write a weekly blog of my progress on the game. I’ll update this article accordingly to link to that blog.

    Prepared for Linux Exam

    Whilst I haven’t taken the Linux Exam just yet (I’m terrible at actually arranging things), I have read through my Linux exam book and have been working towards doing the actual exam by using Linux on a regular basis.

    Come the new year I seriously need to sit down, book an exam date asap, and get on it, revising daily to pass the test.

    Started Taking Photography More Seriously

    Throughout the course of this year I’ve realised how much I do truly love photography, and how much joy it brings me to go out of my way to capture an image and share it with the world. So as of April, I proceeded to purchase a nice expensive DSLR camera: the Sony Alpha A6300. For quite a while I was leaning towards Canon camera’s, but after weighing up what I wanted to do with the camera (Video record + photography) I settled on the a6300 due to it’s 4K 100mbps recording (using the full 6k sensor and downsampling), and great 24mp shots.

    To give a hint of the types of shots I’ve taken, you can see some of my images below. Suffice to say, I’m happy with my purchase, and have even gone on to purchase more lenses for the camera throughout the year:

    Taken on Nara Island

    Taken in Norway

    Taken in Tokyo

    Tooks 365 photos on instagram for #DailyDan

    Yep! I decided to take part in the daily instagram challenge, and successfully took 365 photos this year! You can see my results and a daily snapshot of my life at my instagram account:

    https://www.instagram.com/caesoose

    Oh! And whilst you’re looking at my instagram stuff, maybe take a look at my photography account:

    https://www.instagram.com/caesoosephotography

    So whilst I’m sure there’s so much more, for now, this is all the things I feel I’ve achieved in 2017.

    I hope you’ve all had a lovely year, and I look forward to 2018 being a bigger and better year!

    See you in 2018!

    -Dan

  • Doki Doki Literature Club (PC)

    Doki Doki Literature Club (PC)

    Warning: the following review contains plot spoilers for Doki Doki Literature Club. It’s recommended you play the game before reading this review.

    Given it’s the end of the year, and that I had to complete one more game to achieve another year of 52 games, I proceeded to look through steam for new games I could play that weren’t too long. That’s when I remembered Doki Doki Literature club, the quirky game from Team Salvato that the internet seems to be going crazy for. Looking it up, I couldn’t believe my luck: it was free! So I got on with downloading it asap and proceeded to play it one Sunday afternoon.

    First up, lets get this out of the way. Doki Doki Literature Club is a Visual Novel game whereby you play as a school kid who happens to find himself in a literature club with 4 very attractive girls. Each day you write a poem for them, and cater it to individual girls, for example, Yuri like’s dark, edgy words and themes, where as Natsuki (the more childish of the group) prefers cute and lovely things. Depending on the words you choose for the poems, each girl will fall ever closer to you, showing custom art pieces of the girls and you becoming quite intimate.

    So far, so typical waifu* game. But Where Doki Doki Literature Club changes is in its approach to bringing about a bigger narrative of these types of waifu games. You see, half way through the game, one of your best friends starts acting weird, writing poems that talk about getting someone out of their head. This all comes to a head when said best friend comes out as having depression, and proceeds to commit suicide one day later. Rather than live with these consequences in game, the game then rewinds, taking you back to the start of the game all with the exception of your best friend now being missing.

    N.B. Waifu games cater to single young men, presenting them with a bunch of ladies, of different personalities and body types for the purposes of making them grow attached to these fictional characters so that they buy products with said characters on/invest more time and money into the franchise.

    Play another week in the game and you’ll soon start to notice that the girls are acting up, to the point of wanting the player at all costs or even just acting weird. The character I was romancing, Yuri, even proceeded to start giving me poems which had her “scent” on, and even would have outbursts of how she would play with herself using the pen I dropped one day. Whilst this was all weird, I found it a fantastic narrative of how far gamers who like waifu’s are willing to take their relationships with their imaginary characters.

    To put it another way, Doki Doki literature club takes waifu games to their logical extreme, pushing the player to question what is right and wrong when it comes to games that create female characters purely to be maids to the main character. I mean, how long would you take being stared at in a cupboard before it no longer feels cute and affectionate, and instead is taken as the creepy and weird action it actually is? In putting the player in these circumstances, Doki Doki Literature Club manages to be both one of the best Waifu games on the market, whilst simultaneously showing how awful the games can be.

    The fact that the ending literally screams “this world and the women within it were made entirely for you!” pushes this point home even further, so much so that I’m unsure how anyone could conclude anything different from the game.

    Play even further, and you’ll eventually have Monika (pictured above) come out and specifically say that she’s been altering the game files to get closer to you, the player. Having to navigate to these files just to delete this crazy character was a fantastic touch, one that drove the point home even more about how this game, and world, was created just for you, to the point an “AI” would want to delete all competition to be with you.

    Hmmm… this is usually the point in the review where I talk about the game’s graphics and sound – and whilst the cute anime girls are certainly detailed and do the job, graphics is definitely low on the list of priorities for Doki Doki Literature Club. Being a narrative driven game the images on screen are merely there to communicate what girl is saying what to you, and whilst it’s all pretty, it’s not really the point of the game. Don’t get me wrong, there are points when the art and particle effects on display are fantastic, but overall, don’t go into Doki Doki Literature club expecting to push your PC to it’s limits.

    So all in all, as you may well be able to tell, I thoroughly enjoyed Doki Doki Literature Club. It’s a pleasant (read: enjoyable) game that really has you wanting to know more about the characters and the world they inhabit. I liked the overall tone of the game, and felt that the twists and turns the narrative took helped keep me interested when I started to get bored of interacting with the same people over the course of the week. Give Doki Doki a try, I promise you won’t be left disappointed.

    P.S. TEAM YURI FOR THE WIN

    4/5

  • Super Mario Odyssey (NS)

    Super Mario Odyssey (NS)

    It’s been a bloody good year for Nintendo, and I for one couldn’t be happier for them. Whilst I initial said the switch wouldn’t sell tremendously well, it looks like I may be being proven wholeheartedly wrong, which is a bloody good thing, as it means we get fantastic gems like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, all in the space of one year. The fact I’m comparing Super Mario Odyssey to easily my favourite game of 2017 in the same sentence show’s how fantastic it really is: Nintendo have made an absolutely stunning platformer, one I’ve gone back to so many times since completing it that I’ve put over 40 hours into it.

    So, what is Super Mario Odyssey about? Well, as per always Peach is kidnapped (along with her new tiara hat that is sentient), with Mario being blasted out of the sky upon trying to rescue the Princess from her captor, Bowser. upon landing in a new, Tim Burton-esque world called hat land, marries happens upon a hat ghost that’s inhabited his fallen hat, and proceeds to use this new hat creature asap, finding he can use it to attack enemies, or even control other creatures. This random new mechanic is explained away within a millisecond, and is never explained much further, carrying on Nintendo’s long held trope of not really explaining much, but using it to death all the same.

    Regardless of how weak the actual story is (there’s a couple of cutscenes along the way, with a lacklustre amount of narrative), the actual gameplay is what most (if not all) players are here for, and it has to be said that Super Mario Odyssey has some of the freshest platforming in the last few years. Not only does the new hat mechanic add so much to the way Mario navigates the world, it also changes the way the levels/ world is laid out.

    You see, in Super Mario Odyssey you are taken to individual worlds that have multiple moons strewn throughout. These moons help power your craft for you to move onto the next world, but there’s nothing stopping you spending hours in one location picking up as many moons as possible. In fact, in the desert kingdom I done just that, spending the first 3-4 hours of the game gathering 80% of the moons available (around 70) before even heading onto the next world, meaning I was already way ahead of what the game anticipated.

    This freedom is present throughout the whole game, and ties in perfectly to the structure of how Mario now plays. Throughout your first play through of the main levels you’re basically collecting brand new moons and progressing every couple of minutes. Everything’s so close together and (apparently) so easy to get that you start to feel Super Mario Odyssey is a little bit too easy. But continue to play the same levels, and you’ll notice the easy moons were purely there for the beginners of platformers, and to get you used to the mechanics of Mario.

    As you start to accumulate 500+ moons (once you’ve completed the main story once), you notice that each moon is a challenge in themselves, some requiring knowledge about the world and it’s mechanics, with others requiring player skill in regards to controlling Mario. Regardless of whether you’re jumping across skyscrapers in a city, or running through time trials at breakneck pace, you consistently feel like you’re learning more and being pushed further than ever before. It’s an enthralling experience, and one that genuinely has you enticed well after the final moments of the campaign.

    Graphically, as per Nintendo tradition the game is an absolute stunner to look at. It’s weird to say, especially given the limited power of the portable games console, but my god does the Nintendo Switch manage to deliver on some cinematic levels of quality! Trees, textures, enemies, everything in fact looks and animates delightfully, resulting in one of the most pixar-esque games to have come out of Nintendo for quite a while. I say that often, but it really is true – Nintendo’s graphical fidelity is as if you’re watching a pre-rendered movie in real time, and it’s an absolute delight to behold.

    Level variation goes through the traditional standard formula of ice level, desert level, dark level etc, but unlike traditional platformers where your characters handling changes slightly based on the terrain, Super Mario Odyssey introduces new ai to control, as well as new environmental puzzles to master. Take for example the water level, where Mario still has an oxygen level. Using the new hate controlling mechanic, you’re able to take over fish, that can of course swim indefinitely. This new way of traversing the levels makes each one a delight to rediscover, especially when you’re hunting for ever more elaborate moons.

    Whilst on the topic of levels, the only level I disliked was a food themed level. Whilst many reviewers have praised it for it’s platforming (which admittedly, is pretty good), I couldn’t stand the actual levels’ aesthetics. You see, instead of there being food strewn all over the place (like, burgers, chicken etc.), you instead get a bunch of abstract shapes and colours that are meant to represent food. Some say it’s because Nintendo were worried about advertising food to kids, so chucked all the textures out, which I find more believable than the half-assed attempt at a style we got in the end.

    Musically, being a Nintendo game Super Mario Odyssey is fantastic. Everything from the new voiced jump man song, to the perfectly suited themed songs for each level will have you jiggling around well after you’ve completed the game and walked away for a while. Even as I write this sentence a few songs and swimming around my mind, wanting me to find remixes of those songs on Soundcloud. It’s genuinely fantastic, and Nintendo should be impressed with that they’ve managed to accomplish here.

    So overall, Super Mario Odyssey is an absolute delight to behold, and one that’ll keep you hooked and entertained for hours. Between it, and Zelda, I feel completely justified in spending £300 on my Switch at the start of the year, and would even argue it’s worth people going out of there way just to purchase the new console for these games alone. Super Mario Odyssey manages to perfect some of the series’ tropes, and even introduces (and disregards with relative ease) so many new mechanics that’s any one could have been a game unto themselves. If you like platformers, you owe it to yourself to own Super Mario Odyssey – it’s the pinnacle of what a platformer can be.

    5/5