Friday, December 31, 2021

First Impressions: Oculus Quest 2

Over the Christmas weekend, Santa-Odin-Claus delivered to us an Oculus Quest 2 (Meta Quest 2?).  I had been eyeing the system for some time and like my approach to console gaming, I was less likely to be able to afford a high enough end laptop that could run VR well enough so instead I forked over (Santa made) the money over Black Friday sales and picked one up (Santa delivered).  Last weekend was my first real experience playing higher-end VR apart from the Nintendo VR Labo (that I talked a bit about here and here) and the one day at my uncle-in-law's house where I played the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges and took on a platoon of Stormtroopers.  So while I have had the Oculus Quest 2 in my possession for just about a month, last weekend was my first time using it.

I will spare you a lot of the set-up details and minutia, but I will say that what ended up taking the longest was connecting the Oculus Quest 2 (OQ2 from here on out) to my phone (after downloading the app) and syncing it to my computer.  There were a few other instances of the set-up process taking a little longer than anticipated, but that would be boring reading and frankly, I do not remember all of the steps I took to get the Quest working.

Before I actually get to my actual experience, I wanted to add that I did get (Santa's Elves created) a few accessories, one of which I will be returning.

First off, I got some control grip covers for the controllers (specifically the ones from NCBeyong), often read that having additional texture on the grips was a good thing especially if you are going to be playing longer than 15 minutes sessions as your palms are likely to get sweaty.  Plus instead of just a wrist strap that comes attached to the controllers, there is a palm strap that allows you to not have to hold the controllers without them falling out of your hands and can help reduce cramping.  I also ordered some rechargeable batteries because I could double up with the four-pack and use them with the Wii U Wiimote.  I also ordered the official Oculus Link cable-thing so that we could stream the video of whoever is playing to the computer and not just rely on the Air-Link.  Plus I liked the idea of being able to (possibly) play other VR games from my laptop, but that is not as likely to happen; I also had to buy a USB C to USB adapter so that I could plug the Link cable into the computer as the cable is only a dual male USB C cable.  

Lastly, I had read a lot about the standard head strap not being of good quality so after reading a number of reviews, I picked up the BOBOVR M2 Headstrap, which I was not at all happy with for several reasons.  First and foremost, I never felt like the BOBOVR head strap was securely on my head, like it was only coming to an inch above my ear and that if I turned my head quickly that it would fling off and against the wall.  The two top pads also played a part in feeling like it was keeping the head strap up high on my head.  Then there was the front and back padding which seemed to be sliding on my hair, pushing the head strap up when I tightened it, plus I knew that I would end up sweating a lot because the material did not feel breathable.  Lastly, the few times I felt like the headset was somewhat securely on my head, the screen was very blurry, and only adjusting the headset again to an uncomfortable position did the screen clear up.  Oh, and then there were two additional straps that seemed to secure the headset to the Oculus unit that was not in any of the pictures and one was missing completely from all of the videos on BOBOVR's website.  And on top of all that, upon trying to initially return the product to Amazon, I find that the store page no longer exists.  So I reinstalled the regular head strap that came with the OQ2 and my only complaint is that sometimes it can be a little irritating on the back of my ears (or whatever that bit that connects your ears to your head is called).

Now onto the games!

I did buy a VR Bundle through Fanatical for $15 which seemed like the way to go as far as starter kits for the OQ2 goes.  One of the games I was already planning on purchasing, Accounting+ as it was made by Crows Crows Crows, who are some of the same guys who made The Stanley Parable, The Beginner's Guide, and Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist. Now, as of this writing, I have gone through the game but I know there is stuff that I missed, but holy damn was that a fun and hilarious game. I also started Zombieland: Headshot and have some positive/mixed feelings, but there will be an article on that likely in January or February.  I also bought the Vader Immortal series as a bundle (being 45% off) and played through the first of three chapters.  Then I downloaded a bunch of free-to-start games like Tripp, Epic Roller Coasters, Mission: ISS, and a couple of demos for games like SUPERHOT VR and  Beat Saber.  I will just say that I now understand why Beat Saber seems to be the titular Oculus Quest 2 game and also why it has never gone on sale and that I have now played through the SUPERHOT VR demo at least four separate times and I will definitely buy that game, but only after it goes on sale because again, I do have games from the Fanatical VR Bundle that I would like to play.

And there are a surprising number of documentaries and educational VR experiences that I was not expecting such as Anne Frank House VR and Traveling While Black and a whole slew of 360-degree videos optimized for VR; and a lot of videos that you would think might be great but you have no control over the camera and once you have a taste of that kind of freedom, it is hard to go back.

As far as the actual experience of VR, I was pretty surprised by a couple of things.  First, I have been able to play for about 30-60 minutes at a time, depending on the game, without feeling nauseous.  For Vader Immortal and Accounting+, there were no issues, but with Epic Roller Coasters, I was good after about 5 minutes, and then I started feeling a little dizzy.  What really surprised me was the feeling of movement as the coaster banked and dove along the track.  It was a very entertaining and slightly disorienting feeling having your brain telling you that you are accelerating and making a steep banking turn but your inner-ear and the rest of your body are not sensing that at all, even if you do lean and throw your hands up as the coaster goes into a steep dive.  Interestingly, I have gotten motion sick, but the few times that it has happened, was about 10 minutes after I stopped playing and had taken the headset off, but I cannot find anything about nausea occurring after the fact not during.  I have also had the feeling of sea legs or something similar after playing Vader Immortal for about 45 minutes, like the ground, was not moving and my brain was expecting it to be when I walked.

Lastly, there is the issue with having to use your Facebook login or an existing Oculus login when you first turn on the machine and before you start playing.  There is a bit of information tracking and you can only limit the unit so much without unlocking it and I do try to limit how much information I am giving Facebook.  Currently, I have voice commands disengaged and while the hand-tracking beta feature is very intriguing, there is additional privacy information if you allow hand-tracking to happen, which I have yet to do.

There is going to be a lot to unpack here as I explore more of what you can do with the Oculus Quest 2, and play different types of games from point-and-click, to first-person shooters, to third-person adventure games, to guided meditation.  I am a fan.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental


P.S.  After I finished the article for today, I went ahead and purchased Beat Saber for a couple of reasons.  First, I really enjoyed the demo and so did Conklederp. Secondly, I have read that the game, at least on the Oculus Quest 2 store, has never gone on sale and is likely not to any time soon because it sells so well that there is no incentive for the price to be temporarily discounted.  Well, the marketing team's decision on that worked on me because I did buy the game at full price.  I had previously read that there were only 10 songs in the base game with optional song packs and while this felt a bit on the slim side, I was happily surprised to find out that there are in fact xx songs included with the current version of the game when you buy it.  Anyway, having a fun time there, and look forward to a MIDI Week Single article or two featuring some of the tracks that Conklederp and I have been vibing to.




Wednesday, December 29, 2021

MIDI Week Singles: "Workshop Cleanup" - Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Revenge (PC)

 

"Workshop Cleanup" from Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage on the PC (2013)
Composer: Santa's Ruin
Label: Steam
Publisher: The Runestorm
Developer: The Runestorm


It is funny that both this game and the song "The Night Santa Went Crazy" by "Weird Al" Yankovic is not related, although I would be surprised if TheRunestone were not inspired when they came up with the idea for Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage.  The point of the game is that you are an Elf who survived Santa going bitch-cake crazy and murdering all of the Elves present at the time along with all his reindeer, and you have to clean up the house, workshop, stables, etc.  It is a pretty hilarious concept if you already find the idea of Santa snapping and going on a murder spree somewhat funny and the execution (no pun intended) here is pretty spot-on, adapting the mechanics from Runestorm's main game, Viscera Cleanup Detail to incorporate the Christmas theme and setting.

This music is the opening track when you start up the game and like any good Christmas-themed song, you have sleighbells, you have triangles, you have chimes.  You also have a solo snare drum which to me always has a military feel to it, probably alluding to Santa's previous rampage before the game starts, or during the course of "Weird Al's" song if that has become your head-canon for the prelude to this game.  It just highlights the hilarity of the situation while still maintaining a Christmassy atmosphere considering you are about to walk into a room covered in blood and severed Elf body parts.

Happy Holidays.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Monday, December 27, 2021

#IndieSelect: Damn Dolls (NS)

 Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of Damn Dolls from publisher QUByte Interactive as part of 420MacMan's #IndieSelect last week.  The game was given and received without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and that experience be shared through social media channels.  All pictures and words included in this article, unless otherwise noted, are my own from my own experience playing the game.

Systems: Windows, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: April 22, 2020
Developer: Rodrigo Riquetto
Play Time: 1 - 2 Hours

Damn Dolls is a short first-person survival horror game where you do not so much solve puzzles to work your way through a haunted house as you make your way through a haunted house and try to avoid instant-kill gotcha moments and dolls.  Although what specifically dolls have to do with the story is not made clear.

The story leading into Damn Dolls is a simple one, and really is not harmed by it nor would it be harmed without the opening story.  The text probably could have used a little bit of English proofing but it is easily understood what the developer Rodrigo Riquetto was getting across.  You are the friend of a girl who recently went missing in the vicinity of the old house that according to local folklore is haunted after a number of people in the area went missing, presumably killed by a man named Rodrick who was then murdered by a mob of citizens but his body was never discovered.

My first gripe with the game is that you cannot invert the y-axis camera, so I felt somewhat encumbered throughout the game, more so when aiming and running straight without looking up at the ceiling or down at the floor became necessary to survive.  I will always bring this up as an issue for games with me because it honestly feels like an easy enough option to integrate into games made in the Unity Engine, but I could be wrong.  Or it is just something that some developers do not consider because they do not play with an inverted y-axis or think that because their game is not a flight sim, why would someone play this way.

So you start the game in a darkened living room armed with a gun and five rounds of ammunition.  Why you have a gun is not made clear, but according to updates made to the Steam version, the choice was made to start the player with ammunition although you do not need to use the gun until after the first "part of the game."  In this first section, you find that there is a floating doll blocking the only hallway leading out to the rest of the room and if you try to sneak around the floating doll, you will instantly die.  When you respawn, you start back in the main living room will your gun and all five rounds of ammunition, even if you tried shooting the floating doll.  Although, thankfully as you progress through the game and you die again, and you will die multiple times, the game does implement a checkpoint-like system starting you with however much ammunition you last had the last time you killed a doll.

Killing dolls is something that you kind of end up stumbling upon as apart from the fact that you start the game with a loaded gun and you find boxes of ammunition lying around like a Resident Evil game, there is no real indication that you are supposed to shoot specific dolls.  There are times while exploring the house that you hear a scare-chord and out of the darkness some horrific-looking doll comes bounding towards you.  And with the exception of the blue clown dolls, there is no visual indication that shooting a doll has any effect until the thing stumbles forward when it dies.  



Again, with the exception of the blue dolls, most dolls take around 4-5 shots to kill, which makes me a little worried that you could accidentally waste ammunition to the point where you are no longer able to beat the game because the blue clowns block areas such as locked doors and keys required to proceed through the game.  I briefly thought that maybe the game would start you over with five rounds of ammunition if you had fewer than five rounds when you died, but there was one instance where I respawned with only four rounds.

There are a number of legitimate scary moments in this game and not all are cheap GOTCHA moments which at first are fun until you respawn (see above).  There are moments when a door might open after you pass it by revealing something harmless inside or there might be a scare-chord as you enter a room to find furniture on the ceiling.  Stuff like this is unsettling, but it is the GOTCHA deaths that this game really throws at you.  In one specific instance, early on in the game, you find a group of candles on the ground and the game allows you to interact with the candles, "Press A" text on the screen, and everything.  If you do "Press A" when on a candle you get a jump scare, a scare=chord, and an instant-kill screen showing you what looks like a fleshy burned doll.  


In another instance, you open a dumbwaiter and a box jumps out and eats you, mimic-style.  After examining the area and the dumbwaiter, I did not see anything that gave any indication not to open this specific dumbwaiter as the previous two you opened were full of world-building atmosphere.  And then you restart back in the living room.

While not a bad game per se, I do wish that there were more puzzles to solve similar to the first puzzle with the floating doll in the hallway, but even that was not entirely clear as finding the "original doll" to burn was difficult as it was in an out of the way area that I was only able to find with a walkthrough.  But after that first puzzle, the rest of the game was finding out where to go next, what the tell was for when a doll was going to try and kill you, then killing that doll (most likely after respawning a few times), maybe finding a key and hoping that you still have enough ammunition or find more before you come across another murderous doll.  The survival horror aspect of the game, having enemies to kill with very limited ammunition was pretty well done to a certain extent but I still think you could accidentally get yourself into a hole where you do not have enough ammunition and must start over.  

I guess I feel comfortable saying that this was an alright game.  I was thankful it was short because having to constantly respawn in the same room and traveling throughout the house all over again, oftentimes re-collecting the same three boxes of ammunition, again and again, got a bit old, as well as worrying if I had wasted too much ammunition to beat the game.  And the constant high-pitched laughter that you could hear throughout the entire house for the entire game got old quickly as well.  Yeah, Damn Dolls had its good moments but were overshadowed a bit more by all of the things I would have changed.  


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Friday, December 24, 2021

Game EXP: Metroid Dread

System: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: October 8, 2021
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Mercury Steam
Play Time: 16:44.44

I am not even sure where to start with this article.

Okay, so let us go back just a little bit in the Metroid chronology first.  Metroid Dread is considered "Metroid 5" coming after Metroid/Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid II: Return of Samus/ Metroid: Samus Returns, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion.  While Nintendo has said that you do not need to have played any of the previous games to either understand or enjoy Metroid Dread, that is personally not how I am able to fully enjoy a game that comes this far along in a chronology.  I had previously played all the numbered games in the Metroid franchise (with the exception of Metroid: Samus Returns) before I started Metroid Dread because I need to know, story-wise, what is going on and because this is a direct sequel to Metroid Fusion, I needed to play that game first (which I have already talked about).  

The beginning of the game does start you off with a recap of the Metroid series, giving highlights to the larger points in the story which I found amusing having spent 14h47m in Metroid Fusion and seeing it condensed into a 15-second clip.  But the very reason that Samus is even on this mission has to do with the X-Parasite, being the source of the main antagonist in Metroid Fusion, I was thankful that I came into this game with that knowledge and experience.  

Like a lot of previous Metroid games, Samus starts off her mission to explore the sighting of an X-Parasite on planet ZDR fully armed, and sadly, again, she loses all of her abilities and upgrades through some story element that you only watch.  I really liked that in Metroid Prime, she starts out well equipped only to lose everything due to an explosion, although you only witness that event and it does not happen directly while you are playing; that might be asking too much though.  But I still think that you miss out on a bit of world/game building showing Samus getting knocked around and losing her powers during an elaborate cut scene instead of having the player control her during the opening battle against Ravenbeak (which you learn about 3/4s through the game).

So apart from playing like a traditional Metroid game, gaining power-ups, missile upgrades, bomb upgrades, and such, the inclusion of the new E.M.M.I. enemies are what makes this game mostly fun, but still frustrating at times.  The E.M.M.I. are scientific research robots gone rogue and are now hellbent on killing Samus while she attempts to explore this section of the planet and making her way back to her ship.  Like SA-X in Metroid Fusion, the E.M.M.I. act as the dread part of the title, hunting Samus, but unlike the SA-X, the E.M.M.I. are relegated to specific areas of each area of the map, this is where some of my criticism comes in.

While you are in an E.M.M.I. zone, the E.M.M.I. will often be scouting in the same area that Samus is in, but you can see them on your mini-map, making avoiding them mostly possible, but the levels are designed to evade the E.M.M.I. difficult while taking into account the ability and skill upgrades that Samus has earned up to that point.  I was sad to find out from [article] that how the E.M.M.I. move around their zones is not always plausible, but instead are designed like puzzles.  Each time you pass through a door while in an E.M.M.I. zone, the E.M.M.I. will start in the same location even if where you know they were in the previous room was nowhere near where you now find them.  This type of behind-the-scenes cheating on the part of the computer makes me a little sad because I do not like the idea of the computer essentially being able to cheat their way to make the game difficult for the player just for the sake of being difficult.  My other critique, and one that I have heard elsewhere, is that you are really only scared for the first couple of E.M.M.I. zones, and only while you are in an E.M.M.I. zone.  When you slide through an E.M.M.I. zone door (because I always felt compelled to slide as it felt more dramatic), the E.M.M.I. cannot follow you and you are safe to find an energy refill station or some weaker enemies to spam for health.  

There is a sense of relief when you manage to escape from an E.M.M.I., but that feeling of dread and fear only really lasts for the first couple of E.M.M.I. zones, the rest of the time it is more of an inconvenience because each time you are captured and killed by an E.M.M.I., you respawn at the entrance to the last E.M.M.I. zone door you passed through.  And once you figure out that you gain the power to kill an E.M.M.I. by taking out the Central System, which is typically one of the easier battles in the game, then the E.M.M.I. just become another creature you can kill.  And then on top of that, once you do have the Omega Blaster canon, the E.M.M.I. start acting different, no longer sprinting towards Samus with acrobatic speed, but instead crawling slow enough down long hallways giving you enough time to shoot off its protective face covering, then sprint away from it before finding another close-by hallway to charge up the Omega Blaster to shoot it in the face and disable it.  Granted if the E.M.M.I. acted like the speed-demon-murderous-bastards that they are the entire time, then the mechanics would need to be tweaked because you need time to break their faceplate and to charge the Omega Blaster to kill them.  And then on top of that, you actually manage to kill an already weakened E.M.M.I. so early on in the game that the game is essentially telling you, "Hey, don't worry too much.  You can kill these things, just be patient until you get the Omega Blaster and it will be alright."

Like most Metroid games, exploration is part of the gameplay.  You explore an area and discover that there is a door that you cannot open, or that there is a wall with a new symbol barring access to another area.  Your exploration takes you to a new area where you unlock a new upgrade or an ability like the bombs or Wave Beam.  Now, where was that wall that you needed to bomb to get through?  This has always been my personal frustration with Metroidvania games in general, is being able to remember where certain locations were, assuming that you were able to find that small single block-sized bombable wall down in the bottom corner of the room.  Metroid Dread does help a little bit in this aspect as it gives you the ability to leave different colored markers on maps, and I did do this early on as there seemed to be several types of doors that I could not open.  And on the map, you can have the cursor hover over a type of door or object on the map (like recharge stations) and have them isolate those specific locations by lighting them up on the map.  But only on the map of the area that you are in.  I was again frustrated by the inability to not look at maps of other areas, for instance, while in Cataris, I could only look at Cataris and not at the map of Darion.  If I wanted to know what percentage of items I had found in Hanubia, I would have to make my way to a transport or elevator, get to Hanubia to see if there was anything that I had not picked up yet instead of being able to look at a map and see that I only had 45% item completion.  I don't think other Metroid games have this functionality so I do not know why I would have expected Metroid Dread to start this trend, but it is more of a quality of life feature that I would have liked to have been implemented.

I briefly want to talk about boss fights, because I have mixed feelings about how they were designed.  First off, the boss fights here were all difficult to varying degrees.  I know that each boss took multiple attempts as you learn their patterns, which attacks work against them, which attacks do not work, how many forms they have (or how many sections of the battle there are), which attacks can be countered, and how to time those counters, and how to use your existing arsenal of skills in the room provided.  I am not saying that I think that each boss should be able to be killed the first time around and thankfully the game respawns you right outside the room/area where the fight is as opposed to the last save room, but knowing that you will just respawn close by does take away a bit of the fear of the boss, but again, I feel like that mechanic is worked into the design of the boss fights.  You are supposed to die multiple times as you learn how to fight the boss, and when you die, you take what you learned from the previous attempts to fight the boss almost immediately after respawning.  

But here is the strange thing about how Mercury Steam designed their boss fights.  While at times I would often get frustrated at only being able to make it just a little bit further and survive a little bit longer during the fights, I did survive longer and gained a little bit more knowledge about my plan of attack.  And when I died, I wanted to try again, because I felt that I had gotten just a little bit closer to getting a new ability so that I could explore more.  There were a couple of times though that I felt like I had hit a wall and watched a YouTube video or read an article about tactics, and I would usually find out that I was either reading the enemy wrong or that I was actually doing just fine and needed to progress just a little bit further.  The final boss fight though felt different because it was the final boss fight.  There would be no more exploring to do, only the fight then the end of the game.  And the final fight took a while to both learn, recover from, and have the gusto to restart the fight because it took so long.

The fight against Ravenbeak was different from all of the previous boss fights.  Not only were his abilities different, but so were his tells, and also how the battle progressed.  I realized pretty early on that Ravenbeak's attacks never felt as powerful and damaging but he was one hell of a bullet sponge; or missile sponge as it were.  Oftentimes I felt that I was just unloading missiles into him without any effect and just trying to survive long enough for the next counter to be available.  And then after that, the glowing aura surrounding him would turn from purple to gold, which made it nearly impossible to tell if the missiles and/or Plasma Beam were having any effect.  Even trying to focus on the sound effects, I could not tell if there was a hard metallic *tink* sound indicating that what I was doing was working or not.  And then there was the flaming/shadowy globe attack that chased you around the room and god forbid if it hit you because that seemed to do the most damage.  It was not until I watched a video that I learned you have to use the Power Bomb against these spheres, the giant flaming one actually giving you health upon destroying it; I know for sure that I would not have thought to use the Super Bomb during this fight.  Eventually, on/around my 10th attempt, I was able to take down Ravenbeak and progressed to finish the game.

I am going to leave the end-end of the game a mystery because it was something that I did not anticipate and will possibly have implications for the rest of this storyline, but I definitely "woah'd" a few times.  I also died once while trying to escape the inevitable planet collapsing timer.

Lastly, I wanted to briefly touch on the amiibos designed for the game, which I did buy.  The Samus amiibo gave you an additional energy tank and once per day, would recharge your missiles to full.  The E.M.M.I. amiibo gave you an additional 10+ missile tank and again, once per day would recharge your health completely.  At first, I thought that I would be using these somewhat frequently, at least once a day, but I never did.  Because countering would often reward you with additional health and missiles and there were some enemies that could very nearly get you back up to full, along with the energy and missile recharge stations feeling somewhat plentiful, I never felt the need to use the amiibo again.  I had also thought that they would come in handy during boss fights, but I was usually wrapped up in the battle that I never thought to pause the game, go to the system settings, go to the amiibo menu, tap the amiibo and then return to the battle.



You know, I think we are good here.  There are still several aspects of the game that I could touch on such as the speed of Samus' running, the Shine Sparking ability, the E.M.M.I.'s attacks, the focus on countering during boss fights, the progression of gaining new power-ups and upgrades, subverting the normal power-ups by using Ice-Missiles instead of the standard Ice-Beam, the pacing, finer aspects of the story, and what the hell Kraid was even doing on ZDR in the first place, but that would have just dragged this article out to longer and more unreasonable lengths.  Overall, I am very happy with Metroid Dread and while I may not jump right back in and play the game immediately or try to beat the game under a certain time limit with a certain percentage of the items collected, I did have a lot of fun and would like to reiterate how much I love Metroid games, especially 2D side-scrolling Metroid games.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
He'll Be So Kind In Consenting To Blow Your Mind

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

MIDI Week Singles: "Carol of the Bels But Louder" - Cthulhu Saves Christmas (NS)


"Carol of the Bels But Louder" from Cthulhu Saves Christmas on the Nintendo Switch, and PC (2020, 2019)
Composer: Joshua Queen
Album: Cthulhu Saves Christmas (Official Soundtrack)
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Limited Run Games
Developer: Zeboyd Games


Last year we featured one of the songs from Cthulhu Saves Christmas and it seemed only fitting to once again feature another song from the game.  Purposefully chosen for how much this song hits the theme on the nose, you have Christmas music, winter music, and contextually, penultimate boss battle music.  Essentially I can break down why I love this arrangement to a couple of points:

  • "Carol of the Bells" is just an awesome 102-year-old song on its own; which apparently was originally written as a Ukrainian New Years' folk song in 1916 called "Shchedryk."
  • It's similar to but still different enough from the version by Trans-Syberian Orchestra that it doesn't sound like you're listening to their arrangement. 
  • Because this is the boss battle and possibly other reasons being connected to Cthulhu and cosmic horrors, there is a musical reference to the Dies Irae around 2:52 - 3:06.
  • There is a choir.
That is really it.  Joshua Queen has done a great job not only with writing music to an existing franchise but also arranging a classic Christmas song adding in his own touches rather than just rehashing something you could hear on the radio*.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian


*P.S.  I specifically mentioned the arrangement by Manheim Steamroller not because I think it's overplayed radio schlock, quite the opposite.  I love this album as it was our family's go-to when we would put up the Christmas tree every year.  And it makes me a little sad that more songs from this album aren't as frequently played on the radio.   But oh well.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Game EXP: New Super Mario Bros. (Wii U)

New Super Mario Bros.

System: Nintendo DS, Wii U Virtual Console
Original Release Date: May 15, 2006
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Play Time: 7 hours 24 minutes

I first played New Super Mario Bros. sometime back around 2008 on Conklederp's DS.  I remember being excited about a new 2D Super Mario game and I recall feeling that the first level highlighted everything that I felt was missing from the 3D Mario games.  I wanted 2D platforming, I wanted the feeling of a Super Mario Bros. game akin to Super Mario World but with updated mechanics, and I wanted to have fun.  I realize that the last one is subjective, but that first level, introducing the new Mega Mushroom and utilizing the bottom screen of the DS when you enter pipes was a simple, yet brilliant use of the dual screens on the system.  I only played the game once and in that single sitting, I completed World 1 and played the first two desert levels in World 2.

Like a lot of games in the Game Boy Advance and DS era, I did not pick up a copy of New Super Mario Bros. for my own, knowing that Conklederp had her own copy, (or it might have been Beardsnbourbon's copy because Conklederp doesn't recall what happened to the game and I know we have combined our games during one of our last four moves) and generally waiting for a sale that either never happened or I did not notice until the game stopped regular production and the price skyrocketed.  So when I got the Wii U, I knew that this was going to be a game that I picked up for the Wii U's Virtual Console.  One potential worry I had though was how the Wii U's gamepad was going to handle the dual screens of the DS as I was not interested at that moment because I was playing exclusively on the gamepad while not hooked up to a TV.  Thankfully, Nintendo gave a variety of options when it came to the display settings.  I ended up going with the "Upper Screen Focus (Right-Handed)" because it made the most sense as most of the action happens on the top screen and the smaller bottom screen was still accessible for activating the stored item or collecting coins in an underground bonus room.  I did like the aesthetic of having an original DS mockup on the screen displaying both screens, but again because the majority of the action happened on the top screen, it just made more sense to have that be the focus.

Now, because this game has been out for 15 years, a full review is not necessary, but there were a couple of aspects that I wanted to discuss.  The first is the Mega Mushroom and item storage.  Obviously, I loved growing to over 50% of the screen, and being nearly invincible was a kick.  I loved that a number of the pits were just narrow enough that you would not fall into them if you did not jump over so you could just focus on your linear destruction of the environment and the enemies on-screen.  However, outside of the first two worlds, being massive seemed more of a hindrance than a bonus.  It could have been that there were worlds in 3 - 8 where being large for the section would have made the level significantly easier, but I did not always have a Mega Mushroom in my item storage.  

That being said, towards the end of the game and at least in the last three worlds, I did make sure that I had a Mega Mushroom that I could call upon during the boss fight against Bowser Jr., who I found could be defeated with a single stomp.  I did strategically have a Mega Mushroom in my item storage when I went up against Bowser Jr. and Dry-Bowser-Reincarnated-Bowser at the end of the game, which did kind of make the final fight anti-climactic, but at the same time, a lot less stressful and if the developers had not wanted the player to be Mega Mario when the beat the game, then they would have made Dry Bowser resilient to Mega Mario's stomp.

An item that I found nearly useless every time I came across it was the Blue Shell that seemed to only come up when the floating ?-Block hovered over a random level.  From what I could tell from the three times I used the Blue Shell was that it turned Mario into an invincible object that rocketed across the screen killing everything it came into contact with.  Not unlike the Mega Mushroom, but this seemed a lot more dangerous for Mario than it was for the Koopa Troopas.  I feel like I was probably not using the Blue Shell correctly as I always seemed to speed across the screen and into a pit, or it would appear from a floating ?-Block in a platforming-heavy section of the level.  Eventually, I just avoided them altogether since you could not store them in your item storage like the Fire Flower or Power-Up Mushroom.

Lastly, it was not until I was in World 5 that I discovered that I could travel back to previous worlds simply by tapping the world icon on the bottom screen while you were on the overworld map.  I had thought that this map was just informational and not actually functional.  It was then at this point that I traveled back to World 1 to farm lives in Level 1-1 because I did not want to find out if I reached 0 lives, especially after reaching a checkpoint in either the mid-castle or the final stage in a world.  Likewise, I have mixed feelings about having access to World 4 and 7 be cut off and only accessible if you were Little Mario and used a specific small pipe in a specific level.  I guess it is more of an inverse of skipping worlds in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3, where here you have to gain access to worlds instead.  By the time I made this discovery, I was already set on beating the game so to date, I have not played either of the two optional worlds, which does make me kind of sad, and perhaps I will go back to the game and find the best way to be Little Mario in that specific location.

My biggest critique is that while I loved the Mega Mushroom, outside the first stage, I never felt that there was a great level that felt designed to use this item in and that was a real missed opportunity.  Maybe have there be an area leading up to a battle with Bowser Jr. where you have to get a longer-lasting Mega Mushroom and sprint through barriers that Bowser Jr. is erecting to try and block you.  Kind of like how the giant eel chases Mario in World 8-3, flipping the mechanic of the invincible enemy chasing the hero.  For all I know maybe there is something like that in Worlds 4 or 7.  I get that when you can bring in your own items from outside the level that there is the risk of breaking a level (like using the Mega Mushroom to take out both Bowser Jr. and Dry Bowser at the end of the game)... actually now I want to go back and try using a Mega Mushroom in an underwater stage.


This really was the most fun I have had in a Super Mario game in a long time and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, which I am playing when I am not playing Metroid Dread, does feel like a souped-up version of this game although I do wish that the Mega Mushroom had been kept through the series, I get that each game needs to feel like it has new items, new variations on familiar enemies and mechanic to keep things feeling fresh, otherwise, it is just the same rescuing Princess Peach game over, and over, and over.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

MIDI Week Singles: "Festive" - Fortnite (Everything)

"Festive" from Fortnite on Nearly Every Platform Except Apple
Composer: Unknown
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Epic Games
Developer: Epic Games


The "Festive" music was featured during Season 7 (Chapter 1) of Fortnite between December 2018 and February 2019 and like all (at the time) in-game music, would play while you were in the lobby choosing your character skin loadout, buying cosmetic skins, deciding which game mode to play, or waiting to be pulled from your menu into the waiting island before taking off into the main game.  The music premiered during Fortnite's first Christmas/Winter event and has all of the hallmarks of a Christmas song.  There is the wind sound effect, the chimes, the harp, the jingly bells, the dramatic and cheesy Hallmark Channel strings that start playing.  You can almost pinpoint which Christmas song it sounds like but then the thought is gone when you are about to name it, always evasive.  I still cannot think of which song between 1940 and 1960 this song specifically sounds like but I am sure that it is there.  There are hints of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and possibly "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas," with just a sprinkle of "Jingle Bells," or something similar.

My Christmas 2018 was spent in a snow covered and fully heated cabin on the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, and while I only spent three days there (Big Brother tracks me), there are few other places I would rather be, so I have oodles of good feelings and memories about Christmas 2018 when I hear this song.

And as possibly cheesy and cringey that we are using music from Fortnite (again), to each their own.  So there.  


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Friday, December 10, 2021

Thoughtful and In-Depth Analysis of The Game Awards 2021

 


¯\_(ツ)_/¯





That was genuinely going to be the entire article about The Game Awards until I really started thinking about things.  I did participate in the voting process, I do know several of the titles that were nominated and I have played at least one game that won an award.  I do not follow e-sports but that's just because it doesn't interest me and not because I think it's a waste of time.  I also know that there were going to be a number of game reveal trailers last night BUT HOLY DAMN can we just take a moment and reflect on that trailer for Star Wars Eclipse for a god damn second!?

Okay, moving on.

I had thought about doing a short list of the nominated games I have played (those only being Metroid Dread and Fortnite) along with the percentage of games that I have heard of and/or interest me, but that seemed to go against my initial thought of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I guess I was a little surprised that Resident Evil 4 won for Best VR game, originally being a 16-year-old game adapted to VR, but maybe that says something about the porting process and the longevity of the game, even if it was not one of my favorite Resident Evil titles.  I was also surprised that Metroid Dread won for Best Action/Adventure game especially going up against Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Resident Evil: Village, but that is probably just my pessimism about Nintendo games in the arena of game awards (unless it is a mainline Legend of Zelda or Super Mario title).

Going back/onto game reveal trailers, I already mentioned Star Wars Eclipse so we will leave that one alone.  I saw that a trailer was released for Hellblade II: Senua's Sacrifice and while I have not watched it yet, I am tempted.  I loved the first game, which I played on the Switch and I do not expect that this sequel will also receive a Switch release so it will probably be at least another couple of years until after it is released on non-X-Box consoles.  Oddly (maybe?) the only Nintendo Switch release I could find was for the new Sonic game coming out next year, and that is also being released on other platforms as well.  I am sure that I am actually wrong with that statement, but it can be hard when announcements and trailers don't specify which platform they are releasing in; you can almost bet that when developers use "Releasing on PC and Consoles" more often than not it's just PlayStation and X-Box.  Although, Annapurna Interactive does have a decent track record of releasing several games on the Switch so maybe we might see Thirsty Suitors released there too.  Maybe.  I think like a lot of Switch people I was hoping for something about the sequel to Breath of the Wild and might have gotten my hopes up in the last couple of days; can't imagine where I got that idea from?

That is really all I have.  Like I hinted, not much to say on the matter.  Very happy to see Metroid Dread win an award, so I'll just leave it at that.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian



¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

MIDI Week Singles: "Snow Dancing in the Schoolyard" - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

 


"Snow Dancing in the Schoolyard" - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance (2003)
Label: Square Enix
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer Square Product Division Development 4

First off, I wanted to mention that there are two versions of this song on the soundtrack, the first is the music that was used using the Game Boy Advance sound chip and the second was the uncompressed song.  Sometimes I will use the straight out of the game music, but this time I wanted to use the uncompressed track instead.  Partly because it was longer, but as is expected, it just sounds crisper, cleaner.  The game version of the song though is not bad at all and does sound great for music from the Game Boy Advance, but today, I wanted to use the uncompressed track.  Just wanted to mention that.


There are three things that immediately stand out about this song.  The first is that it was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, he just has a particular sound to his scores from Final Fantasy Tactics, to Vagrant Story, to Ogre Battle: Let Us Cling Together, to Final Fantasy XII, they all sound very similar.  Second, and connected to the first, is that this sounds like it belongs in a tactics game, be it Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story, or Ogre Battle, just something about the flow of the music.  Lastly, within the first 10 seconds, the instrumentation helps to place the setting in a wintry setting.  The shake of whatever that MIDI percussion instrument is along with the MIDI strings and then the chime coming in a few beats later followed by the whistle, to me all help to convey that this scene takes place somewhere it is cold.  Not the desolate cold of a frozen wasteland, but a nostalgic setting from youth when playing in the snow was the highlight of the day followed by hot chocolate/cider next to a warm fire and footy-pajamas; honestly, it is still the highlight of my day if I already do not have to think about work.

All I really remembered from FFTA regarding this music was that there was a snowball fight that introduced tactics-genre fighting mechanics and functioned as the tutorial stage.  Then some kid threw a snowball with a rock inside effectively ending the tutorial.  It turns out that this track only plays during the lead-up to the battle, then battle music plays, then another track plays after the snowball fight moves from active to the passive story and that is when Mewt is hit with the snow-covered rock.  I think I just enjoy the playfulness of the song coupled with the snowy tone along with the combined nostalgia of wintry youth and the 120+ hours I spent playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

Monday, December 6, 2021

First Impressions: #IndieSelect: Head Over Heals (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Head Over Heels on the Nintendo Switch from publisher QUByte Interactive as part of 420MacMan's #IndieSelect.  The game was given and received without expectation or promise of a positive review, only that the game be played and the experience be shared through social media.  All words and pictures in this article, unless otherwise noted are from my own experience playing the game.

Systems: Windows, macOS X, BeOS, Linux, Atari Jaguar, Nintendo Switch
Original Release Date: 1986 / 2003
Developer: OceanRetrospec

Context is going to be very important in this review of Head Over Heels, so there is going to be a bit of a forward before we get to the meat of the article.

Head Over Heels was developed by Jon Ritman (Batman, Monster Max) for Ocean back in 1987.  The game did very well, receiving praise from the video game industry at large, and was included in Tony Mott's "1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die" coming in at 138 (if that is your kind of thing); there might be an article in that book?  The point is, Head Over Heels was very well received in 1987 and for years after.  In 2003, Retrospec updated the game with more modern graphics and it was then ported to the Atari Jaguar by Piko Interactive in 2019, and finally QUByte Interactive released it on the Nintendo Switch in 2021.  There is a history behind this game, one that I admittedly do not know a lot about.  The takeaway here is that this was a game that was developed and released originally in 1987 for home computer systems (Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, etc) and I am playing it now on a portable gaming console in 2021.

Before I started Head Over Heels, I knew that I was going to be playing an isometric puzzle adventure game.  That was it.  I did not know anything about the characters, the world, the story, or anything in the game did.  But I have played a few video games released in 1987 (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Double Dragon, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Final Fantasy, Blades of Steel, Rad Racer, and several others but you get the idea) so I felt that I would be fine just jumping in and figuring it out as I went.  Well, that was not a great idea because in Head Over Heels, you play two characters who start in separate rooms and I could not figure out what I was supposed to do with either character and what I needed to do, and how to get out of either of the rooms.  The next time I picked the game up, I pretty much just button mashed my way to figure out that the buttons I had the characters standing on were actually transporters that could be activated using the Jump button.  I eventually saved the game and then went looking for an instruction manual because, after a couple of attempts at playing, I wanted to know what it was that I was actually doing.

I found a couple instruction manuals online (this being the best-looking one).  It was here that I found out how much I was missing.  That Head and Heels are being held captive, how transporters worked (which I already knew), that Head should learn how to climb the ladder in his cell (which leads you to find the fluffy bunny which gives you extra lives), what the bloated blue angler fish does, and that you should not reach the Market without Head acquiring the Hooter otherwise it could make the game very difficult; the Hooter being the name of Head's gun that shoots doughnuts used to temporarily stun enemies while they lick the doughnuts off of their faces.  And you know, I realize I still do not know what the shield icons are about, but I presume that they allow either Head or Heels to take an additional hit without dying.

A lot of this game is trial and error and once I put myself in that mindset, I was better able to appreciate the game, similar to how I approached Dark Souls differently, that sections of the game needed to be learned as opposed to just barging through.  And having this mindset I feel is the only way to progress in the game, because progression is going to be slow, at least from my own experience.

You start out the game with each character having eight lives although you can get additional lives by collecting Fluffy Bunnies (because why not).  If Head or Heels loses all their lives, they essentially borrow a life from the other character, and losing lives happens a lot in this game because there is no life meter, one hit from anything that is out to kill you will kill you immediately.  When you die, you will respawn immediately in the last room transition you made.  If you just came through a doorway, you will respawn there.  If you fell from a room above, you will respawn falling, and this is where one of my complaints as far as game mechanics comes from.  

Early on, there is a jump you have to make with Heels, but if you miss that jump, you fall to the room below where there are two enemies patrolling, one randomly and the other seeking you out.  Because you fall slowly in this game, the enemy has time to track you down and fox-guard the area where you are going to land and when you land, you die because the enemy hits you.  Now, because this is with Heels, you cannot guide your falls, so you fall straight down until you die and respawn in the same place where you fall and die.  


This happens until you either quit the game, or the game ends because you run out of lives.  What is frustrating about this happening is that you could be making your way through the game, feeling good about your time spent, and have 20 lives between the two characters, but because of a single misstep/jump, your game is essentially over and you have to load a previous save file.

Let us talk about saving.  Hoo boy was this a frustrating mechanic to figure out.  Saving in this game is done by pausing the menu and selecting Save, pretty standard stuff.  But this can only be performed if you have already collected a Reincarnation Fish (the bloated blue angler fish mentioned above).  The instruction manual gives you a vague description of the Reincarnation Fish, but there is more world-building lore about the fish than its actual function.  And once you use that fish to save, you cannot save until you find another fish, or if you already have another fish in your inventory.  But the thing is, the game does not tell you how many Reincarnation Fish are in your inventory, or essentially, how many more times you can save the game.  I do not mind the limited save mechanic in certain instances (Resident Evil for one), but this specific mechanic, as it is implemented here, has completely changed my approach to playing this game.  I have to have enough time to play and to get far enough in the game that I feel I can use up a Save.  If I save too early, say after 15 minutes, then I feel like might have wasted a save before a series of rooms that were not difficult, but time-consuming to get through, but knowing if a room is difficult to get through and that I should use a save, is usually not something you will be able to decipher on-site.

I get it.  Head Over Heels is designed to be a difficult game.  It is not supposed to be an easy adventure game, otherwise, you could beat it in less than an hour, and anyone buying a computer game in 1987 would probably be upset at having spent $20-40 (I could not find an exact cost for Head Over Heels when it was first released so this is just a guess based on game prices in the mid-late 1980s) would probably have been upset at bringing home a new game and beating it in a single sitting.  There is supposed to be trial and error, figuring out the best way to approach puzzles and hazards and feel accomplished when you make it far enough to warrant a save.  When Retrospec updated the game in 2003, I feel that they could and should have also updated the saving mechanic as well, maybe afforded more than one save per Reincarnation Fish, added an on-screen icon to tell you how many Fish/saves you have left to use, or even allowed you to not die in that one room when you respawn from the ceiling.

All of my complainings aside, Retrospec has done an amazing job with their updated version of the original Head Over Heels and I am pretty impressed with how nearly identical the game plays to what I can tell of the original (or at least the original on the ZX Spectrum).  I love that there is no longer a transition between long rooms, that the screen just scrolls while you move through.  I am very impressed with the new music composed by Dorian Black and I would love to be able to listen to the music outside of the game, but thanks to the commonness of the game's title and apparently the name of the composer, finding any semblance of this soundtrack has been impossible.

At the moment, I am reserving any recommendation for Head Over Heels until either I finish the game or I reach the point where the game is no longer fun and I throw in the towel.  I am enjoying the quirkiness of the characters and the game world, I am loving the music and I would really love to be able to finish this game, more so in a happy mood than a sour one.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian