Game EXP: Rollin' Eggz (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Rollin' Eggz from publisher GrimTalin on the Nintendo Switch.  The download code for the game was given and received without promise of a positive review, only that I talk about and share my experiences playing the game.  All of the words and pictures in this article unless otherwise noted are my own.

When I saw GrimTalin advertising for the release on the Nintendo Switch of their newly published game by developer Square Heads Games, my first thought was that I had played something very similar on an old Nintendo Game & Watch handheld when I was a kid.  My memory told me that it involved bombs instead of eggs (and I am still trying to find out what game it was that I was remembering)*.  Rollin' Eggz as it turns out is not an entirely original concept in its core gameplay mechanic, although the game does contain three separate games and two difficulty settings.  I did not find this out however until after I had played the base game on what turned out to be the Easy difficulty setting for nearly 27 minutes.

On its own, the base game, "Rollin" is a cute and brightly colored game where you have to catch eggs that roll down one of four chutes before they fall and break on the ground.  Now, to make things more complicated, there will occasionally be rotten (black) eggs or bombs that will fall and if you catch those, then you will lose one heart and after losing three hearts your game is over.  You are able to recover hearts with golden eggs, which are also worth three points while the regular white eggs are only worth one.  There are additional gameplay elements such as the Flash Egg which speeds up the rate the eggs roll as well as doubling the value of each egg.  The point of the game then is to last as long as possible and score the most points.  The concept is pretty simple and plays like how you might imagine a simple arcade game from the early 80's, albeit with much better-looking graphics.

On my first time playing "Rollin," turned out to be 27 minutes, racking up a grand total of 1548 points.  This being my first time playing, I had no idea if this was going to be a good score, an average score, or would I earn three stars for my performance; to note, I let three eggs crash in order to stop playing since quitting would erase any/all progress I had made.  As it turned out, the egg:point:gold coins ratio ended up being 1:1, so I had 1548 gold coins after my first 27 minutes of playing.  I then went to the in-game store, bought both additional characters, and still had 948 gold coins left over and nothing to do with them.

This was also the time that I found where you can change game modes and difficulty levels.  So I started "Rollin" again on the Challenging difficulty, and that was when I felt that the game started to move from monotonous to fun.  For a comparison, this was on my first playthrough on Easy:

And here is the same "Rollin" but on Challenging, with the main difference being that part way through, I catch a Flash Egg and that was when I felt that I had the most fun:

Had the majority of the game played at the speed it does when the Flash Egg is used, I think I would have had more fun.  The rest of the time, the eggs never seemed to roll fast enough to keep me actively engaged.  That being said, the speed of the eggs did pick up a bit while on easy, but that was only after I had reached a score of around 300 and after that, it never seemed to increase even after reaching 1500.

The other two modes, "Raining" and "Rainbow" are similarly played but still a little different.  In "Raining" you now have five chickens to catch eggs from and increased controller movement options using the L+R shoulder buttons to immediately go to the further most chicken, or the middle chicken by pressing up.  "Color" is essentially the same game as "Rollin" but instead you just have to match the color indicated in the upper right of the screen with the color of the eggs that come rolling down the chutes.  You will always have a color matched so there is no trickery on the part of the developers.

I also wanted to mention that the music in the game, seemed appropriate for both the age range and the farm setting.  There were, I think, a selection of three songs that would play randomly (or if it was not random, I did not figure out a pattern).  But there was one faster paced song that I called "The Hoe Down Song" in my head whenever it came on and that I might try to feature in an upcoming MIDI Week Singles article if I can locate the music.

Now, before I get down to more of my critiques, I just wanted to acknowledge that I recognize that I am not the target audience for Rollin' Eggz.  The gameplay is simple, even the slightly more complicated mode of "Raining" on Challenging.  In all of my playthroughs, I only came across one Flash Egg each time, and I am 99.47% positive that I only came across one Bomb each time as well.  I know in the first playthrough I came across one Lady Bug but I could not remember what they did.  And then there is the Snail that will occasionally have an X over it, which will slow down the eggs for a short time.  I ended up only using this twice to see how much it slowed down the eggs, and eventually once it reached the character, it stopped moving and never activated again.  One disappointing thing that did not happen, was with both the Bomb and Rotten Eggs.  There was no secondary animation.  When the Rotten Egg cracked on the ground, I expected there to be some green/black fumes come out of the egg, but there was nothing.  Likewise, when the Bomb dropped, on the ground (or in the basket), there was no flash or explosion noise.  It just made these items that you were trying to avoid a little hollow in their effect. 

In a thread on Twitter, GrimTalin did confirm that they have already submitted a patch* to Nintendo to help fix the spawn rate of the various power ups.  Hopefully there will also be general speed increases, especially on Challenging as, by their own admission, that it is targeted towards "seasoned players," presumably parents/aunts/uncles who want to play with younger children.  While playing, I was kind of scoffing at the $2.99 price tag, but I think that that price is actually quite perfect if you plan on playing the game with or buying the game for younger players (maybe around 5-7 years old?) who may not be ready for some of the early NES games available on the NES Online games selection.

So that is where I am at with Rollin' Eggz developed by Square Heads Games, and released on the Nintendo Switch by GrimTalin.  It was not designed for me, but it might be great for much younger players who are not as adapt enough yet to play more complicated games like Super Mario Bros.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Before The World Starts Breaking Up

*P.S.  I would be remiss not to point out that Rollin' Eggz is essentially a revamped remake of the Game & Watch game Mickey Mouse and Eggs.  The concept of the base game "Rollin" is nearly identical in that you catch eggs as they roll out from one of four hen houses and it is game over when you accidentally let three eggs break, although the inclusion of the various power up eggs and hazardous Rotten Eggs and Bombs builds on the base gameplay.

**P.P.S.    So I may end up writing an update after the update if I feel that the patch warrants it, i.e. if there are significant enough changes to the game that I feel that my article here is now outdated and needs itself an update.

FFXIII play journal: part 2

FFXIII play journal:

Alright, I got there.  Chapter 11, where things become less linear.  There is a large overworld and you can go scampering around in it.

However, it's really no more than a series of optional fetch-quests.  Go here, get a mission to kill this monster, find monster, kill it.  There are, I think 64 of these misisons, and according to various online resources, you can easily spend 25 more hours at this area.

Well, I've already put 25 hours into this game, so I decided not to hang around in Chapter 11.  It's a shame, because if this choice had come 15 hours earlier, I may have wanted to fart around a bit and get to know the characters and combat systems.  It is a shame that it comes so late in the game, as it is freeing to be able to wander around for the first time.

So, after a handful of hours completing missions, I decided to venture on.  The game does not stop you from moving on, though the difficulty has gone up for the battles, both big and small.  Various online guides suggest either grinding to level up, or crafting to power up or just very careful use of the battle system.  I'm hoping I can get by with #3.

So, the final area for chapter 11 is a tower that feels like the first proper dungeon in the game.  there's movement back and forth and around, instead of just forward, forward, forward.  So even skipping most of the big open area, I'm enjoying the tower.



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FFXIII play journal:  final entry

Well, I did it, I beat FF XIII.  I don't really want to talk about it. 

I'm only half joking.  The fact is that I found it fairly exhausting by the end.  As I might have imagined, completing a 35 hour game felt very long.  It's been a long time since I've played through an RPG, and this one just wasn't that rewarding. 

I really loved the battle system, the graphics and creature design were both very cool.  But the plot and characters, at their very best were 'just okay' and at their worst were really annoying.  While I do think the game is gorgeous, I didn't particularly care for the aesthetic or character design.  Just not my style. 

Ultimately, I fall on the same side as most who have played the game.  It was oppressively linear, and they wait way too long to give you a little freedom of movement.  The pacing of the game just wasn't good, and that's a serious problem when you have to play for 35 hours to get to the end.   The sad irony is that I enjoyed the battle system so much, I would be tempted to go back to Chapter 11 and do a bunch of missions.  But in order for that to be really appealing, I think Chapter 11 would need to be about 10-12 hours deep, instead of 24.   Oh well. 


It is very frustrating to think back on this game because it's full of missed opportunities.  The first 6 hours or so made up of simplistic fighting and annoying storytelling and character moments.  Then it settles into a good groove for a while, the characters start to come together and I like them more.  But then stretches on too long and becomes repetitive.  The story just sort of settles into the characters being met by different enemies and deciding to press on. 



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epilogue:

well, looking back at this a couple weeks later, and I realize how far FFXIII is in my rearview mirror already.  It was a fairly absorbing experience while I was playing it, but I think I was all too ready to leave it behind.  I think I had to play the game as much and as often as possible in order to have any chance of getting through to the end, and that experience left me burned out.  I'm moving much more slowly through my current game, Hyper Light Drifter.  I'm not feeling obsessed, I'm just enjoying myself.  That's a nice place to be.  

First Impressions: Nintendo Labo: VR Kit - Part 2

This is Part 2 of a currently two part series about the Nintendo Labo: VR Kit.  Part 1, where I go into my history with virtual reality and preconceived notions about VR on the Nintendo Switch can be found here.

So Sunday afternoon is when the VR Kit arrived and that was when I started in on the box.

My first thought, not having any experience with any of the previous Labo kits, was that the cardboard sheets that made up the break-away pieces was a lot thinner than I was expecting.  The cardboard did not seem flimsy, but something about its thickness just seemed. . .thin?  However, once I started putting the cardboard together to create the VR Goggles, I discovered that there were a number of pieces that ended up with three individual layers of the cardboard and once constructed, were quite sturdy.  I mean I could still bend all three pieces with my feet if I really wanted to, but why?

One thing that did kind of surprise me, but really should not have, was that the VR Goggles took over 30 minutes to assemble, creating four separate pieces that ended up fitting together to make the one unit.  I knew from reading about the first set of Labo kits that each construction took anywhere from 30 minutes to up to 3 hours for some, even when adults put them together, but my hubris towards construction Ikea furniture got the better of me.  I will not underestimate the complexity that will be the facegun, or whatever it is called.  Blaster?

Once I did have everything together, I dove into the handful of mini-games that were playable with just the VR Goggles and what surprised me the most was the gyroscope.  Not the gyroscope in the Joy-Cons, but inside the body of the unit itself.  I had no idea that there was a gyroscope in the body of the Switch.  This allowed for movement of the goggles to look around inside the VR world along with separate moving of the Joy-Con as a cursor/hand.  One hand holding the goggles to my face while my right hand holding the Joy-Con, picking up objects and throwing them into a brightly lit blue sky, or playing a six stage platformer that seemed to be inspired by Wipe-Out!

Something else I was not anticipating, were the informational bits told to the player(?) about how virtual reality works, how the VR Goggles work, how the brain interprets different visual inputs, and a number of other behind-the-scenes aspects contained in the play/game portion of the cartridge.  I found myself going through these tutorials, partly because I am genuinely interested in what they entail, how the information is presented to their targeted younger audience, how that information is interpreted by someone 33 years older than the boxed age suggestion, and because I feel like after engaging with all of the tutorials that it might unlock something else.  Granted an impatient players of any age could just as well click through them as quickly as possible, spending maybe 10% of the time I have spent in order to unlock anything that may or may not be hidden.  Plus, seeing as how Nintendo took the time to put together information about the product I just bought, I might as well interact with it to at least make the money I gave Amazon and Nintendo feel like it was worth it all.

Going back to some of the concerns I had prior to purchasing/playing was the resolution and frame rate.  After an hour or two playing various games, watching some specifically designed videos, and a couple of the tutorials, it is very easy to see nearly individual pixels from the screen.  And while it is noticeable, for me at least, it was far from distracting.  The resolution, primarily on the videos was also somewhat fuzzy, but far from unplayable.  Also, I apologize to anyone else using our Switch for VR as our screen is not the cleanest and I probably could have done a better job applying the screen protector.  But again, it is pretty easy to look past the "blemishes" and just enjoy what is actually happening on the screen.

And I think ultimately that is what not only the Labo VR kit, but the entire Nintendo Labo series is about.  Having fun.  I recognize that I am not the target audience by about 30 years, but I do love constructing things and I am pretty excited to see what the Labo Garage has to offer in terms of VR and what assets from the included games section.  And maybe with exception of the flying game, I think Conklederp will also like a lot of what Labe VR has to offer.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Long As She's Been Doin' It Right

First Impressions: Hyper Light Drifter

I first picked up Hyper Light Drifter a couple months ago, and quickly got stuck, and I put it down pretty soon afterward.  After playing through FFXIII, I wanted to play a few smaller-scope games before tackling another RPG, so I tried Hyper Light Drifter.  I’m really glad I did. 

The game has excellent art style and lots of cool details in the pixely graphics.  I am a sucker for pixely graphics.  There is also no dialogue whatsoever.  All conversation is told by way of a series of still images.  And while this makes for a really cool way of story development, it also means there are no instructions.  This nearly beat me in my initial play.  I ended up stuck at 1 life point with no idea where to go, and dying constantly.  I needed a little booster to get me through the initial stages of the game, so I looked up a guide. I’m very glad I did.  

The beginning of said guide made a comparison with dark souls, and something clicked.  I realized that the game was supposed to be combat-focused and difficult.  I was *expected* to die all the time.  Life wasn’t going to be doled out freely, I was going to have to treasure the health packets I was able to get.  With that knowledge securely in mind, I set out again, and chose to travel a different direction in hopes of finding something new.  With a bit of a bumpy start, I gained some momentum and was off to the races.

Before long, I could genuinely say that I love this game!  I’m able to enjoy all of those indie game quirks that make the game a little tough to get into.  I love that the lack of written word engages other parts of my brain;  It draws me into the story.  The game is very atmospheric, with a lot of old, unexplained ruins hinting at a huge and dramatic past.  I eat this stuff up with a spoon and ask for seconds.

The gameplay is pretty action-oriented, full of carefully timed dashes and sword strikes.  Sometimes it seems like there’s a little input lag on my computer, but I am usually able to work my way through most of the tough fights.  At this point I’ve beaten one dungeon and developed one new combat ability.  I am excited for the next phase of this game.

-D

here are some gameplay images for ya:

MIDI Week Singles: "Searching for Friends" - Final Fantasy III/VI (SNES)

"Searching for Friends" from Final Fantasy VI on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1994)

Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

Album: Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version / Kefka's Domain: The Complete Final Fantasy III Video Game

Label: NTT Publishing / Squaresoft

Publisher: Square

Developer: Square

This might end up being kinda sappy, but who cares.

I decided on "Searching for Friends" from Final Fantasy III/VI partly because of the title, but also because this Friday will be the seventh anniversary for Dr. Potts and I writing together about video games and whatnot.  Granted the first three and-a-half years were over on TwoBoysAndTheirBlog before moving over here for the remaining amount of time.  Because the blog was started as a way of keeping in contact after I moved out of state, I thought that this song and how it was used in the game (after Celes leaves the island following the cataclysm that reshaped the world) would be semi-appropriate; not that me moving away is supposed to signify the cataclysm, that's looking too deep into meanings that aren't there.

There are so many little things that I like about this song.  There's the combination bass line and melody, both work on their own and you can easily pick one line to focus on each time the song loops.  And that bass line is really something else too.  I also love that this song is used whenever you are in the over world in the World of Ruin, be it flying in the airship or just walking around on land, this is the song that is playing.  I could be putting my own meaning into the use of this song for both purposes, but to me it feels like you do not need a separate song for the airship when your purpose is the same, regardless of your mode of transportation; but that's just me.

Either way, go find a friend.  They're out there.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It Always Happens My Friend

First Impressions: Nintendo Labo: VR Kit - Part 1

This weekend, I picked up (a la Amazon) the Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04 VR Kit.

I have had virtually (eh!?) no experience with virtual reality on my own.  I did play one level last year in Lenovo's Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, which was quite fun, but I knew that it was not something that I would be able to do on a regular basis, if only because my phone would not be able to handle VR both in terms of system requirements and 82.47% sure that it would take up more storage space on my phone than I would have if I were to delete half of my frequently used apps.  On a similar note, I have never used the Google Cardboard VR viewer either for nearly the same reason.  I have also never used either PlayStation VR o, HTC Vive, or Occulus.  So when Nintendo announced the VR Kit for Nintendo Labo earlier in the year (or was it last year?), I thought I would finally jump on the VR train, but I wanted to wait for reviews first for a couple of reasons.

The first being an issue that gave me pause with the VR Kit was the problem that I had had with the Power Glove.  I never owned a Power Glove, but one of my neighbors had.  This guy, we'll call him Red, was a bit taller than I was back in the early 90s and when he showed me the Power Glove and said that it was a one-size-fits-all and was too small for him, I began to have second thoughts on picking one up (in reality, asking for one for Christmas or birthday).  So I was really hoping that the headset in the VR Kit would not run small for someone like me who has a larger than some head.  When I saw Jeff Ramos' Polygon's review, my hopes were lifted a bit.  I asked him via Twitter about the size of the goggles and he said that the size was fine, even with someone with a massive head.  So this really put me the idea of actually picking up the VR Kit into view.

Secondly, I had heard (second/third hand) of instances where people got motion sickness because a VR game was lagging under 30 fps and having some history with motion sickness induced by certain first person video games (DOOM II, Time Splitters: Future Perfect), I was a little concerned about this with the Switch, knowing that it was not a graphically heavy system compared to the PS4 or XBO.  I was even more concerned that the apparent optimum frame rate is upwards of 90, which I, one, have never played a game at 90 fps so I would not even know what that would look like, and two, I have never heard of a Switch game running at 90 fps.  And because motion sickness experienced during games does not happen to everyone, it is kind of hard to determine if what affects one person will affect everyone else.

Lastly, there were some graphical concerns, that because the Switch while undocked played at native resolution of 720p, then splitting that as a VR headset might then have a resolution of 360 per eye.  Much less than what portions of the Internet will tell you is significantly unplayable because it is not a native resolution of 1080p per eye.  While running at 90fps.  My ultimate figuring was that because it is Nintendo releasing the product and not a small third party developer, that they are going to not release a crappy peripheral for the Switch, or at least that it what I thought.  You could point to the Virtual Boy, Power Pad, the Wii U, or any other device from Nintendo if you really want to and say it was badly thought out and produced if you really want to.

So, this is the lead up to me actually starting to put together the VR Googles unit, being the base for what all of the other VR kits attach to and I will be covering what that experience was finally like in Part 2 on Friday (or tomorrow if I get around to it)*.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental


*There is also a very good chance that Part 2 will contain pictures.  Maybe not pictures of me, but pictures of the VR Goggles.  Because who wants to see pictures of some schmuck with cardboard on their face?

P.S.  This article ended up turning into a two parter because as a one parter without pictures to help break up the text, it got quite cumbersome and the Editor-In-My-Head told me to.

Loving Lovecraft Games

I know I have a problem.  It has to do with my love of the themes and general wierdness in a lot of stories by Howard Philip Lovecraft.  And not just the Chtulhu mythos either, although I do very much enjoy those stories.  And when companies create games (both board games and video games), they tend to focus on Cthulhu as opposed to other Elder Gods, which I am perfectly okay with; plus it might be harder to sell a board game called "The Culling of Shub-Niggurath."  Thankfully though, none of the games that borrow and modify the mythos he created that I have played have mimicked Lovecrafts known racism or antisemitism.  

The point is, I recognize that I have a problem whenever I come across a game that has some element of Lovecraftian mythos attached to it, be it ones that directly reference the Great Old Ones, or simply employ some type of madness or insanity mechanic.  Presently, our go-to for Lovecraftian gaming is Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, although I am always willing to expand beyond that New England setting.  Another large part of this, is seeing a professional artists interpretation of Lovecrafts sometimes vague and near contradicting descriptions of his creations.  The Elder Things for example, from "At The Mountains of Madness" are described as such:

Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths—combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans ... which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. 

Game length can also be an issue, since building a sense of fear and dread can have more of an effect over the course of a couple of hours instead of a 15 minute game.  Card games like Lovecraft Letter and Tides of Madness, and even the dice game Cthulhu Dice are designed for faster play and employ some level a madness mechanic, but really only in name and not so much in how the player feels.  Possibly.  We have only played those three games a few times, with nights of extended gaming usually reverting (being in no way a bad thing) to Mansions of Madness.

And that is just board games.  I am currently playing Darkest Dungeon which is also heavily inspired by Lovecraftian lore and also employs a stress mechanic as well as a narrator who has recorded (presently) six collections of H.P. Lovecraft audio books.  And the new Call of Cthulhu game from Cyanide, which was recently announced as receiving a Switch release.  And I would be remiss to even talking about weird cosmic horror video games without bringing up Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which, believe it or not, I started playing before I really into Lovecraft, which is probably why I thought that the areas in the cyclopean city under the Roivas Mansion were so odd compared to the rest of the game.

Now, there are plenty of games, both board, video, and card games that I have not played due to both time and money.  I have had my eye on the Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and The Elder Sign (which wonderfully enough all take place in the same universe with the same characters, from Fantasy Flight Games), as well as the Cthulhu skinned Pandemic version aptly titled Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu and I am very amused and slightly intrigued with Yahtzee Cthulhu and Monopoly Cthulhu.  I almost wonder why there isn't a Clue: Cthulhu, although I usually just explain to people that Mansions of Madness is already like a Clue set in a Cthulhu universe.  Although I guess if and when we buy a copy of Monopoly, because what is a home without a copy of Monopoly, it might as well be one that is Lovecraft related.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Purpose to Live is Reality

P.S.  After a "very" brief search over on Amazon, this is a short list of Lovecraft-related games if you are looking for something to play in the next two days it will take for Amazon to ship you a new board game*.  And this is in no way an attempt at an exhaustive list.  That would be too long a list and too boring to use as a full article.  I also don't have the time.

Arkham Horror
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Cthulhu Dice
Cthulhu Fluxx
Cthulhu Gloom
Cthulhu in the House
Cthulhu Wars
Cultists of Cthulhu
The Elder Sign
The Eldrich Horror
The Call of Cthulhu Card Game
Lost in R'lyeh: Call of Cthulhu
Lovecraft Letter
Mansions of Madness
Mansions of Madness 2nd Edtion
Monopoly Cthulhu
Mountains of Madness
Munchkin: Cthulhu
Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31
Tides of Madness
Yahtzee Cthulhu

*This is in no way a paid advertisement to/for Amazon, they're just an easy resource for looking up available boardgames.  And we're all about being easy here.

MIDI Week Singles: "Bonus Stage" - Balloon Fight (NES)

"Bonus Stage" from Balloon Fight on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)
Composer: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka
Album: No Official Album Release
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo Research & Development 1

I promise you that I am not using another song from Hirokazu Tanaka because I am just going through his catalogue.  Most of the time with #AllTheNESMusic, I am not paying attention to the composer if I do not already know the game, so when I decided to use Balloon Fight, I was surprised, but not, to find out that it was "Hip" Tanaka who had written the music.

Now, I've played Balloon Fight a bit on various platforms (Arcade cabinet, NES, Ultimate NES Remix, NES Mini, NES Online), and while I find most of the music to be fairly standard early '80s arcade style music, although more developed than Donkey Kong, it is not until the music that plays during the short bonus round that I am more than interested.

Now, with the short length of the bonus stages, even if you manage to miss every single balloon, will only last maybe 30-45 seconds which is just under the length of the song before it loops back to the beginning.  And the last five seconds or so of the song too is where the awesome doop sounding drum/tom-tom solo is.  I don't know why none of the video game cover bands I am familiar with have not yet covered it, but at least there are like minded people who have gone ahead and made a cover.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Who Is Fast and Thorough and Sharp as a Tack

First Impressions: Daggerhood (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Daggerhood by Woblyware and published on the Nintendo Switch by Ratalaika Games, through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect event.  The game was given without expectation or promise of a positive review, only that the game and experience playing the game be talked about and shared through social media channels.  All of the words and experiences contained within this article, unless otherwise noted are my own.

Similar to another Woblyware title, Devious Dungeon, Daggerhood is a retro-styled pixelated platformer where you play a character who moves through a series of dungeons collecting  items and making your way to an exit without dying.  But that is about where the similarities end.  In Daggerhood, you play the character of Vincent S.  Daggerhood, a thief who is thrown into the depths of a cavernous prison, who uses a form of magical dagger that allows him to transport himself by throwing it at targets/destinations.  The dagger can also be used to attack enemies.

The game is made up of 100 levels spread across five worlds/areas, and within each of those levels contains three collectables in the form of stars (beating the level under a certain time), treasures (finding and collecting five treasures scattered throughout the level), and a fairy (which only exists in the level for a certain amount of time before disappearing).  The way that I have typically been playing Daggerhood is that I end up playing each level three times, collecting each of the collectables on a single playthrough.  And this is something that I love about Daggerhood that could have easily gone the route of a too difficult game.  In Daggerhood, you are able to play through quickly in order to earn the three stars for beating the level quickly, followed by another run through collecting all five treasures while taking all the time in the world.  The game keeps track of what you have already accomplished, not requiring you complete all three in a single playthrough in order to "complete" the level.  Granted this could make the game three times as long as someone who is better than I, but I do appreciate that I can play as many times as needed to "complete" a level.

And, at the moment, this is also kind of my main complaint about the game.  With each world area consisting of 20 levels, this makes the desire for innovation within the worlds otherwise the gameplay can start to feel old.  And where I am at, adding moving platforms around level 15 does not feel like the kind of level innovation I would classify as innovation.  Even though the levels can be completed in under 30 seconds (some have an 15 second timer in order to earn three stars), 20 levels does seem like a bit of overkill in order to pad out the game.  In Jack 'n Jill DX there were 140 levels across seven worlds/areas, but that game added game play elements throughout the world, whereas aside from the transporting dagger, I have yet to come across another change in gameplay, but maybe that is because I have not yet finished the first level; this is a First Impressions article after all.

Lastly I wanted to bring up the music, which next to saying how much I love it, I cannot really add anything else.  The only way that I could possibly be disappointed by the music, is if the music does not change at all once I reach the second world/area.  I have not been able to find out who composed the music, or if there is even a bandcamp soundtrack available.  I guess that is even more reason to beat the game, so that I can watch the credits to find out this much needed information.

So that is where I am at with Daggerhood.  It is a pretty fun game with an interesting concept for a mechanic that I have not encountered before with music that I am very much liking.  I know that there is a boss coming up in a few levels and unless something more interesting happens in World Two (presumably: "Forest") then I may have to call it somewhere around Forest Level 10 (or level 30 in the game*)



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "A Land Burdened with History" - The Elder Scrolls Online (PC)

"A Land Burdened with History" from The Elder Scrolls Online (2016)
Composer: Brad Derrick
Album: The Elder Scrolls Online Music of Tamriel Vol. 2 (Original Game Soundtrack)
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios

First off, I am not sure where in The Elder Scrolls Online "A Land Burdened with History" is featured, and I may not even have access to that expansion, if it is from one of the areas not in the base game.  What I do love about this piece in particular, is that it seems stylisitically different than a lot of the other music, spanning all of the available soundtracks, composed for this game.  That difference, at least to me, primarily stems from the solo violin that is just so damn beautiful, flittering through what could be characterized as just another ambient track for an MMORPG.

Sadly, if there was a real person on the other end of that violin, there is no mention of it in the digital liner notes, and for all I know, it is only a digital player, which would not surprise considering the source material.  But, something about the way the violin sounds, the way it is performed, for lack of a better word, sounds more organic than the rest of the song. Almost as if Brad Derrick composed the background music and then someone came in, listened to the song once, then improvised over the top.  I am just speculating here, but that is the visual I get when I listen to this song.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Hail My Return

Monthly Update: April 2019

It's April now, or at least it started back on Monday and now here we are on Friday.  I know that I did not get as many articles written as I had planned on that I have yet to either start or finish for any number of reasons.  The most accurate being that I have not yet finished those games and feel like I am beyond a First Impressions article but have not yet reached the point where I can write a full on Game EXP article.  That is just the way of things apparently.

My currently playing list, currently, includes (still) Darkest Dungeon being what I am primarily playing (in my 50th hour, and on day 90 in-game), along with Fortnite (since I got Season 8 for free by completing challenges at the end of Season 7), and then two #IndieSelect games that I have yet to finish, SpellKeeper, and Dustoff Heli Rescue II.  I have also toyed with the idea of starting/continuing with a new character in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind since Bethesda released a free copy during their 25th anniversary celebration week for The Elder Scrolls series.  But with my current backlog of games on the Switch growing to the beginnings of my Steam Queue, I do not know if I want/need to start a game I have already played for another 125 hours.  I do not know if I need/want that right now.  That is, unless Nintendo or Bethesda announce that they are releasing Morrowind on the Switch in the rumored Nintendo Direct that may or may not be happening later this month.

And speaking of gaming news, I was kind of surprised by the number of announcements coming out of PAX East.  I have kept PAX East in my periphery in years past, but the number of announcements and the presentations seemed like it was on par with E3.  Obviously I am not complaining, just remarking.  

In March, Conklederp and I also binged through the two seasons of Westworld in a couple of weeks because we do not have HBO and I forgot to cancel after the free week of HBO through Amazon Prime.  And we just started Russian Doll on Netflix which, so far, is a really well paced story that I was initially afraid was going to be too similar to Groundhog Day, but thankfully isn't.  We also started Jordan Peele's take on The Twilight Zone and there is a good chance that I will put down my thoughts for that.  And speaking of Jordan Peele, we saw Us a week or so back while I was hoping for more horror than slasher, I thought it was an interesting and overall good movie that I would definitely be down to give a second viewing to.  I think that is it for the TV shows/movies front.

You know, I genuinely feel like I do not have a lot to say, so rather than take up yours and my time with inane drivel, why not call it done then and hope that we all make it home alive after Dr. Potts' bachelor shenanigans that will be absolutely nothing like The Hangover; if only because we are not going to Vegas.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Uprooted Yet Forced to Stay

MIDI Week Singles: "Battle of Hoth" - Shadows of the Empire (N64)

"Battle of Hoth" from Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on the Nintendo 64 (1996)

Composer: Joel McNeely with themes by John Williams

Album: No Official Soundtrack Release*

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: LucasArts

I do not remember exactly why I decided to use music from a Star Wars game, or what the nugget was that started this search.  I was looking through music on my computer, filtered it to Star Wars games, then decided to use music from Shadows of the Empire rather than Knights of the Old Republic since I had more experience and history with SotE.  I then did not want to use the opening screen crawl music because that seemed both too obvious, and oddly enough, not interesting enough for a MIDI Week Single.

I landed on "Battle of Hoth" probably because I played this level the most because it was in 1996, this is what I had always wanted from a Star Wars game.  Flying around a large swath of snowscape in a snowspeeder shooting at AT-ST and AT-ATs.  I later found out I could turn off the visual HUD and when in the cockpit view (which disappeared along with the HUD), it felt like the closest I would get to flying, albeit with blasters and a tow-cable.  But this music was a key part of that experience, especially around 00:38, which is really before all of the blasting and focusing on turning the snowspeeder not into the legs of the AT-AT.  It probably also helps that the music is from my Star Wars movie and from one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

God I love Star Wars.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I've Been Readin' 'n Writin'


*So, there was a soundtrack to Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire with music by Joel McNeely, but that was meant as a soundtrack to accompany the book that was released around the same time.  Lucasfilm made had a multi-platform release spanning a book, music cd, comic, action figures, and a video game.