#IndieSelect: Super Life of Pixel (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of Super Life of Pixel on the Nintendo Switch from publisher WhiteMoon Dreams, Inc. and developer Super Icon Limited through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect.  The game was given and accepted without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played, and experiences are shared through social media channels.  All of the words in this article unless otherwise noted are my own from my own experience playing Super Life of Pixel.

When I started looking through what Super Life of Pixel had to offer I was immediately reminded of two games that I have played over the last six years.  The first was Evoland, an RPG from 2013 that evolved through different styles of graphics and gameplay as you progressed through the game.  The second was The Adventures of Elena Temple, a retro platformer that allowed you to play the same game using different skins emulating different fictional gaming systems based on real-life counterparts.  What Super Life of Pixel has done is to take both of those concepts, but ups the offerings by actually using real-world consoles and hand-held systems, some that I had never heard of before and others that I am very familiar with.

Super Life of Pixel is a platformer that lets you play eight stages created in the style of specific computers and gaming consoles throughout history.  Starting with the Sinclair ZX81 with its monochrome screens up through the Sega Saturn (which I have not unlocked because I haven't completed the game yet) with its 16.77 million color display.  The object is to collect the required amount of diamond-shaped jewels in order to unlock the exit to proceed to the next level, while there are other items to collect that eventually unlock additional consoles to play, as well as Pac-Man looking fruit that looks to be there for completionists.  As the player progresses through the consoles, the levels become increasingly more-and-more complex and increase in difficulty without decreasing in the level of fun.  For the most part.  Obviously, there is only so much that a developer can do with a single screen platforming area using the constrictions of an Atari 2600, but once you reach the ZX Spectrum and you play through multiple screens and the screen if full of more and more enemies, that is when the game becomes a little frustrating.

I think this is only doable after you acquire the double jump boots, but I
could be wrong on that note.

For the most part, the difficulty in the different levels seems to vary a bit, some levels being significantly more difficult than others.  The ZX Spectrum levels gave me the most difficulty, specifically with "Monster Palace" and "The Great Outdoors," earning me the "Determined" for dying 20 times in-a-row on the same level on a single playthrough.  The rest of the levels that I have played through (not all of them to remind you) have been a lot more fair-ish.  Most of the levels incorporate the spikes that slide up from the ground at the same interval throughout the level, which is nice when you are trying to time jumps.  The game also allows the player to move the screen up or down to see beyond the immediate playable area, which definitely comes in handy when you are trying to figure out where to jump next after following the diamond jewels to what looks like a cliff.

You really hope that this pit doesn't lead to a floor of retracting spikes.

One last note on the difficulty which specifically has to do with the optional collectibles.  There is a flashing gem (because I cannot call it a jewel since I already used that descriptor) that unlocks the SEGA Master System, which is typically visible in most levels without having to uncover it in a hidden area; think the bandaid in Super Meat Boy.  It requires a little bit more skill to grab and might require the player to look up/down, but rarely is it as hidden as the fruit or the disks.  The fruit and the disks are often located behind hidden walls and require a butt-load more skill and time to acquire than I wanted to put into the game.  It was in the stage above, "Monster Palace" that I gave up trying to earn all of the fruit, and I only found out about the hidden discs by accidentally finding one, and then through some of the message boards did I find out what it actually was that I had found.  And since there are no checkpoints throughout the entire game, which I feel like the game does not really need, I found myself not willing to risk trying to a hard to reach fruit at the risk of having to play through an entire level all over again in the very real chance that I died in the attempt; more so when levels like "The Great Outdoors" took me over 5 minutes to complete.

One of my other criticisms with SLoP is that the presentation of the consoles may not be 100% historically accurate despite the highlighting of the specs for each system before the start of each new collection of levels, but to Super Icon's credit, they do say that the levels are "historically inspired consoles" which you could say is not a claim of historical accuracy.  Out of the first five computers/consoles featured in the game, I have only played on the Atari 2600.  From my own experience playing Atari games (as well as consulting some videos on YouTube), the color palette for each of the stages seems about right, but the amount of detail, for what little detail there actually is, still seems too high for even the latest games released on the system in 1990.  The detail for Pixel and some of the enemies seems too detailed from what the Atari 2600 could produce.  Then combined with the quality of the music playing at the same time as the sound effects in-game, I feel like there were not enough sound channels to produce all of the sound effects and music at the same time.

I knew this as Rush'n Attack, but on the C64 it was Green Beret.

You know, despite all of these criticisms, I have been having a really fun time playing through all of the computer systems and consoles that I never played when I was younger.  I will sit down and play for about 20 minutes at a time, usually getting through 2-3 levels (sometimes more if I fall into a groove) before I put the game down.  Not through lack of fun mind you, but because after playing the same 2-3 levels multiple times over-and-over, I mentally need a break.  Also because the music does not change between levels (it does change when you switch consoles), I feel like an audio break is also in order.  However, I can see someone trying to make the point that if a player feels the need to put a game down and stop playing, then it really is not a good game and should be criticized as such.  Which is definitely not how I feel.  When I am playing, I am having fun, greatly amused by Super Icon Ltd's dedication to taking a simple concept and running with an attempt to do a bit of a history lesson of influential gaming consoles over the last 38 years.  That takes some chutzpah and while the execution may not be Smithsonian levels of accuracy, I feel like they did nail the fun factor, especially when you are able to catch references in level design.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

Game EXP: Dustoff Heli Rescue II (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received Dustoff Heli Rescue II for the Nintendo Switch free of charge from developer Rainy Frog and publisher Ratalaika Games through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect event back in early March, 2019.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and shared through social media channels.  All of the words contained in this article, unless otherwise noted, are my own.

I first started playing Dustoff Heli Rescue II back in March and finally finished the game back on April 10th, but for whatever reason, the rest of the next two months, I failed to follow up with a second article, delving a bit more into my play experiences with this game.  If you have not read my First Impressions article yet, I recommend it because I will be coming from the perspective of someone who already knows a bit about the game.

Bringing supplies to the troops.

In my First Impressions article, I was on Mission 08 out of 35, which seems like a decent amount of missions to get acquainted with the overall mechanics of the game.  By that point I had experienced attack missions, rescue missions, and supply drop missions.  The only thing that would be more developed as the game progressed were the environments.  While most of the game took place traveling from one side of the level to the other, eventually vast networks of cave systems were introduced, and these areas (as they never fully encompassed the entire stage) were my least favorite.  Even when I had upgraded to the highest level helicopter in the game, which had the best controls with the exception of the flying saucer (more on that one later), traveling through tight corridor-ed caves was always nerve wracking and never seemed to go as fast as I had wanted to.

Unlocking weapons & helicopters happens w/ completing levels, and is not
directly related to the number of stars earned on a mission.

In that article, I had also (briefly) mentioned the jump in difficulty, especially with Mission 08.  What I apparently failed to take in was just attempting to pass a level without some/any/all of the side items (additional stars, dog tags) on my initial run through on the stages.  What I ended up doing was just playing the level to pass it and try to work my way up to better helicopters as well as upgrading the equipable weapons when they became available, then go back and do previous stages where I was missing stars/dog tags.  Once I reached that mind set, I began to have a lot more fun, or at least became less frustrated with not being able to do the levels as fast as I needed to be in order to earn the timed star.  And you know, once I had progressed enough to have a helicopter at one or two levels, I would go back and do previous missions and wonder what my hang up was.

The point is, sure you could probably get a 3 star rating while collecting all of the dog tags on your first playthrough on Mission 13, but that was not how I was enjoying the game.

Not the best shot, but if you look closely, you can see another friendly Blufor
Helicopter back there by the plateau.

I also want to highlight the fact that the level design was pretty amazing for the overall voxel approach to the game.  Often times there would be other helicopters in the background, presumably doing similar missions.  This lead to the feeling that the world I was playing in was not limited to my own actions, but that there were other missions going on that I was a participant in.  What I like about this is that it eliminates the solo fighter constantly being the one key component to winning an entire war.

And then there was not the last mission, but the mission that ended the war.  Without giving too much away, I will say that there were elements in this one level that were not used in any other level, and that was a nice touch.  When I came upon these environmental elements, I was taken aback, both at the scale that Rainy Frog took to make this particular level feel special, but also because it looked great!  There was the semi-expected boss battle too, but that was not what I am referring to. 

And then the game continued!  After the big boss battle, there were still missions that included eliminating remaining factions, rescuing troops from earlier missions, and the like.  It was, in my opinion, a pretty brilliant way to close out a fun game.  Rather than have the boss battle be the last level, there was clean up to do, which to me makes sense when dealing with a fictional war.

So in the end, I would recommend Dustoff Heli Rescue II if you are looking for a simplistically conceptualized, which I previously said would not be out of place on the Atari 2600, but with Minecraft voxel stylized graphics plays great.  I spent about 10 hours on the game, which could possibly justify the $14.99 MSRP, but for some reason that still seemed a bit high to me (even though I received the game for free).  I would think a $9.99 price tag might be more reasonable and probably a better price point; but that is just me.

And I still think that a Star Wars game using the exact same engine and mechanics would be a perfect match.  Although EA should probably not be anywhere near this game, otherwise they might microtransaction the hell out of an otherwise fun game.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
But Now We Must Fly

First Impressions: Hellmut: The Badass From Hell (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Hellmut: The Badass From Hell on the Nintendo Switch from publisher Grindstone of Volcanicc's game through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be talked about and shared through social media channels, primarily through Twitter.  All of the words in this article, unless otherwise noted were written by me and are my own.

First off, I knew nothing about Hellmut: The Badass From Hell (forthwith referred to just as Hellmut) before requesting a regional key from Indie Gamer Chick, but I liked the two screen shots that I looked at.  I also liked the Hellboy-esque stylized logo.  So when I started the game after downloading from the EU eShop, I was a little surprised (although I really should not have been) to find out that it was a twin stick shooter; think The Binding of Isaac, Smash TV, or the recently played/reviewed #IndieSelect title InkSplosion.

I was a little nervous after my experience with InkSplosion since I felt that the Switch Joy-Cons were not very comfortable with the type of twin stick shooter that they game wanted me to play as.  And since I felt that InkSplosion was a little too punishing for how short the game could be, I was hoping that Hellmut would be a bit more fun and a lot more forgiving.  So upon booting up the game, I decided that I would play through the tutorial in the hopes that I would have more luck here.  Lo and behold, I did!  Thank bloody hell for that too!

Upon completing the tutorial, I was granted the use of a character named StitchMonster who starts out with 250 health when the standard character, Rat Kind, only has 150 health.  Boon to me for trying out the sometimes lauded tutorial by people who think that they're too good for such childish nonsense.  Which then brings up one of the very cool aspects of Hellmut.  When you start the game, you are just a floating cracked brain exposed skull that is floating/bouncing around and able to shoot weak projectiles.  You then acquire a new form to take which has their own skills, weapons, advantages/disadvantages to consider, hence choosing either StitchMonster or Rat King.  When this character is killed, you become the floating skull again.  Throughout the game, you are able to free other forms to take along with your starter form and skull form.  That was when I freed the character of Ragnar (pictured above), but was apparently unable to keep as a playable character after dying and restarting.

What I really like about this take on the rogue-lite twin stick shooter, is that you are able to switch between any of the available forms you have, if one forms weapon seems more suited for an enemy/boss/situation than another.  Or by switching out before that form dies and before you can make it to a shop to buy health kits, which is significantly cheaper than buying a revive crystal.  And what I love about Hellmut is when I actually manage to play good, because then I feel like I actually know what I am doing.

I guess that is really all I have to say, at least at the moment, about Hellmut.  I wish that the Switch's Joy-Cons were easier to use for me with twin-stick-shooters, but I have managed to score an additional form and have killed one boss over multiple attempts.  The only thing I am unsure about is that in the starting hub where you decided which form to start off with, it looks like there are upwards of six to maybe seven additional characters to choose from, but I am unsure how to unlock them, because it was not the Ragnar character I freed in one playthrough, and I did not get one after defeating one of the bosses.

I guess it is back into Hell I go to find out more about this fun and frustrating game.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
She Lives In A Pig Pen

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

First Impressions: SpellKeeper (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received a free pre-release copy of SpellKeeper by Silesia Games on the Nintendo Switch through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect event.  The game was given and accepted without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be talked about and images shared through social media channels.  All of the words in this article unless otherwise noted are my own from my own experiences playing the game.

SpellKeeper is an interesting casual puzzle game, and I use the term casual not as an insult or jibe at the game or developers, but because it is a fairly calming game.  The music, sound effects, setting, and pace of the game are all very soothing.  In SpellKeeper, there is no timer, and you are not scored or graded on your performance throughout the level.  The closest that I could find to a performance grade, was an achievement/trophy for completing 15 levels in-a-row without undoing or restarting, but I did not see anything about restarting stages you have already completed and doing those first 15 if you are really hard up for the achievement.

The story in SpellKeeper is a combination of quaint and silly.  The setting has something to do with butterflies either captured in crystals throughout the kingdom, or you have to help the princess release the butterflies, all the while using "spells" to set the butterflies free from their crystals.  

You are given a set number and type of spells to use in each stage, with each type of spell casting a different pattern of light on the board, further allowing the player to work their way towards the crystals/butterflies.  There are also semi-optional keys that the game will remind you about if you skip over them.  Keys are used to unlock additional stages in each of the four levels.

As the game progresses, the puzzles become more and more complex, and you are introduced to spells that allow different patterns to be used, as well as different patterns for the board allowing for more complex and combinations of ways to use the spells.  While SpellKeeper is not designed or executed as a stressful game, I have at times found myself relieved after finding the solution to a puzzle (key included) only to have that little ball of stress grow a little bit more at the start of a new level.  I think, for me at least, part of this stems from being afraid that I will not be intelligent enough to not use any of the hint options in order to solve the puzzle.  

Perhaps it is the bright color palette and the kid-like fantasy style art work that implies that the solutions should be easy enough for an eight year old to solve, and then I come across a puzzle that seems to stump me.  It probably also means that I should not be playing while I am in the process of falling asleep.  I also recognize that because a lot of the levels are designed symmetrically, my brain wants the spells placed on the board to be as symmetrical as possible and when that symmetry is disrupted, that is partly when I begin to get lost.

Overall, I think my main critique of the game is its visual aesthetic, which I fully recognize I was not the target audience for.  The occasional words of encouragement and interjections of the flimsy story come across as childish in a way that I do not find endearing, as opposed to the approach that I thought worked very well in One Eyed Kutkh or even Where Are My Friends.  SpellKeeper has a fairly well balanced learning curve (although having frequent tutorial levels that last beyond the initial one where the new mechanic is introduced might have been over doing it a bit) and the inclusion of what seems to be about 72 stages spread out across four levels is a pretty decent amount of content for its $5.99 package.  That being said, I do not know if I would, on a normal day perusing Nintendo's eShop, decide that SpellKeeper would be a game that I would plunk down $6.00 for, but I feel that that just boils down to personal preference.

I just want to close this out by saving what I think is the most satisfying aspect of this game, and I did not start doing it until I was already through the first level.  The chain reactions.  Being able to watch an entire board be cleared by placing just one spell, after you solve most of the board, you remove the first spell and finish placing any remaining spells, only to put the first spell back.  It is just so incredibly great to watch.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Glowing Dim as an Ember

Game EXP: Undead's Building (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a free pre-release copy of Undead's Building for the Nintendo Switch from developer Double Drive LLC for Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect event this week.  The game was given without expectation or promise of a positive review, only that the game be talked along with sharing screenshots through varying social media channels.  All of the words and descriptions in this article unless otherwise noted are my own from my own personal experience playing this game.

I was not actually expecting to be writing a Game EXP article today for Double Drive, LLC's just released game for the Nintendo Switch, Undead's Building, but here we are, and I guess, here we go.

The premise of Undead's Building is that you play an unnamed and  unseen elevator operator in various buildings throughout one or many various cities, rescuing citizens from zombies as they frantically wait for the one elevator car in the building to pick them up and deliver them to safety.  Or at least that is what I thought the storyline was until I read on their eShop page, which is instead that people live for free in buildings infested by zombies and are trying to get to use the elevator before they are attacked and killed.  That is the basic point of the game.  

Undead's Building operates in that you are able to switch between cameras located at each floor of the elevator to see if people are waiting, then you direct the elevator to that floor and can either hold the doors closed, or open them and quickly close them before a zombie crawls inside; although while I was afraid of this happening, I never did experience it, although I guess I could see what the animation is like if I feel like being a horrible person.  Each stage is made up of a different building, which means that the floors buttons in the elevator are in a somewhat different order each time, and the number of floors can differ, as well as where the safety drop off point is; sometimes it is the first floor, while others it might be the roof or one of the basement floors.

So I am very efficient, have a good reputation, but I'm slow. Nothing new here.

At the end of each stage, the game ranks you based on your performance, which seems to accumulate throughout the game, but does not have any bearing on the game; or it least it did not have any perceptible effect on the game.  And I will let you know right now, that for the entirety of the game, my Speed rating did not make it past the the second hexagonal ring.  What You are also given a letter grade that is essentially a star rating, which also does not look to have any effect on being able to unlock levels.  In the one level, I purposefully played bad, earning a D (Bad. . .) rating, and was still able to progress to the next stage.

Are they all clones!? Is that why there are zombies!?

Probably one of the more amusing aspects of Undead's Building is that, or at least it seems that, each building reuses the same three character models for the residents you are rescuing, which can look rather silly when you have nine people in your crammed elevator and nearly half look identical.  This in no way detracts from the game, but it is something that is hard not to notice.  And at least each of the excited animations the characters make when they make it inside the elevator, and the frustrated animations while they are waiting outside the closed doors, are randomized so you do not get the same buff bro "wooping" every time you rescue them; the ungrateful swine.

I think the biggest critique I have of the game is how short it is.  The entire game is made up of only seven stages, with the first stage throwing you right into the game like you have been on the job for 16 years.  Had they included a tutorial level showing you how the elevator operated, perhaps before the zombie outbreak occurred, it might have helped to pad the game out.  But padding out a short game will definitely feel obvious and wasteful.  On the Nintendo Switch version specifically, there seems to be little replay value beyond trying to beat your previous score/grade.  Not to doot my own horn which I am going to do anyway, I never received lower than a B grade on any of the stages after my first playthrough (the aforementioned D rating was from a purposeful attempt); most of them I received an A grade and I assume that there is either an A+ or S grade if you manage to rescue all of the residents.  Perhaps in the PC, PlayStation, or Xbox version there are achievements related to grades, or being able to max out or reach a particular skill score?  But in the Switch version, when you beat a level (with at least a D?) you then unlock the next stage.  At the end of the seventh stage, there was nothing.  No notification about "Try to earn S rank!"  Nothing.  The game just takes you back to the stage selection screen to scroll through the only available seven stages.  Other than the inclusion of new and more floors and more residents to rescue, Stage 7 did not feel any different than a blown up Stage 1.  Had there been flickering lights, maybe a fire breaking out in the basement eliminating one of the drop/safe zones halfway through the level, something dynamic?

One final criticism, which might just be kind of nit-picky, is the description for Stage 6, which says that you will now have to be able to tell the difference between those needing rescuing and the zombies, implying pretty heavily that there will be some need for on the fly deducing of people hovering around the elevator.  At least for me, this was not the case and at times, I was only accidentally hitting the wrong button to close the door or switched back to the camera angle when I meant to open the door.  What it almost feels like is unfinished or un-realized plans for what Double Drive had for Undead's Building. 

Undead's Building is a short game.  Almost too short for the $5.99 price tag being asked (maybe not the current sale price of $4.79?), and I think the game length is what a lot of my critique boils down to.  I like the concept as it is a game that I have never played before in any capacity.  I have never played an Elevator Operator Simulator game unless you somehow count Elevator Action, and I have not played this combination of elements in a single game.  I do not want to give the wrong impression as I did have fun with Undead's Building, but the length of time required to beat it with D grade or better could easily be done in around 30 minutes (if you consider average 5 minutes per stage, but I did not time myself), the replayability is low (next to nil?), but it is still a great concept.  It might actually work as a party/drinking game now that I think about it. . .

JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

First Impressions: Dustoff Heli Rescue II (NS)

Disclaimer:  I received Dustoff Heli Rescue II for the Nintendo Switch free of charge from developer Rainy Frog and publisher Ratalaika Games through Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and shared through social media channels.  All words contained in this article unless otherwise noted are my own.

I am going to keep this article semi-short as I am only on the 8th mission out of 35, and the 7th mission as well as the 8th, are a real doozy as they have ramped up the difficulty a lot more than the previous missions, but I will get to all of that in a bit.

Dustoff Heli Rescue II is a side scrolling game where you take control of one of different types of military helicopters customized for missions varying from supply drop, to attack incoming hostiles, to rescue missions, and plenty of variation in between.  The concept is pretty simple and would not be out of place on an Atari or original NES cartridge. The execution though is where the DHRII would bust out of its 384Kb cartridge.  Visually, DHRII reminds me a lot of Minecraft, if the camera pulled waaaay back and hovered a few hundred feet above the ground, following the helicopter as it flies left/right/up/down towards the destination.  And in that, the controls are pretty simple.  With the exception of the A-button.  The A-button, I think, prevents your helicopter from firing upon targets, or at least that is what I think it does based on what the game tells me during play.  On the Controls Setting screen, it looks as if pressing A fires the gun on your helicopter, but I feel firing/not firing is really only important when you are running low on ammunition.

To Return to Repair/Re-Supply or Keep Going?

There are a couple of additions to this basic formula, but conventional to gaming.  In most missions (I think it is most as opposed to all) there is an odd greenish-yellow colored smoke signal next to crates that point out a resupply station.  At these locations, you can heal/repair the helicopter as well as resupply on ammunition, but also save the game, allowing you to restart if you die before completing the mission.  The downside to relying on these resupply stations is that they can take up valuable time if you are trying to earn the full three stars, and if you die at all during the mission, you will immediately lose a star if you restart from this checkpoint.  And like a lot of Three Star Games, you do need a required amount of stars in order to continue to the next level, but thankfully I have not come across a level that I did not immediately have access to.  A side quest of sorts too, is recovering dog tags (usually five to six per mission) that can be used to purchase, but are not a requirement for completing levels or earning stars.

The only real complaints I have about the game is selecting things when in a menu mode.  There is a bright green box that surrounds what it is that you are selecting, but something about this particular shade of green seems to fit in really well with the whole color scheme of the game, and more than once I clicked a mission that I did not mean to.  There have been a couple of other times where it seemed to take a second for the game to register my menu selection, leading me to pressing the A button again and ending up selecting something that I had not originally intended.  Oh, and I guess the secondary complaint is the jump in difficulty that I am currently facing in Mission 8.

One thing I want to mention, is that while playing Dustoff Heli Rescue II, for some reason I started wanting the game to have a Star Wars skin on it.  I wanted to be flying some type of Corellian freighter, snow speeder, or some other Star Wars ship during the events leading up to and through The Force Awakens.  Here you would be attacking First Order outposts, rescuing resistance fighters, basically everything that you are already doing here.  The game style would not change, only the look of the vehicles, the sound effects, and the music would all be from the Star Wars universe.  This is not to knock anything that Rainy Frog has done with this game, but if Disney gave them a license to make the exact same game but with a Star Wars skin, I would be not at all disappointed.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Throw Your Arms Around Me

#DiscoverIndies: Fall of Light: Darkest Edition (NS)

Fall of Light: Darkest Edition by RuneHeads for the Nintendo Switch is the game that I decided to select as my #DiscoverIndies title for March.  Presently, I have put in 6 hours 23 minutes, I have died 35 times (the game keeps track in an interesting manner), and I still have three main artifact-like objects to collect before finishing the game.  I purchased the game through Nintendo's eShop on Friday March 1st when it was on sale for $4.99 instead of its standard MSRP of $14.99.  While I played the game on the Switch, it is also available through Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

The research I did in the days leading up to Friday March 1st, consisted of scrolling through the eShop while on the Switch and sorted the games by cost, specifically the $0.00 - $9.99 range, mainly because I am not made of cash, and I feel that indie games that are independently published in this price range could possibly use some market share; although you could argue that higher priced indie games need more word of mouth because they are more expensive.  Either way, that was how I set my initial search perimeters.  I then did searches on YouTube, Metacritic, GameFAQS, Wikipedia, Google, and HowLongToBeat in order to help determine its "under the radar" factor, and after that initial search for Fall of Light, I thought that despite the fewer than 10 ratings on Metacritic, that there might already be enough people out there talking about this game; I was also looking at four other games that I decided against, so it was not just a one game search fest.  Then on Friday, being the start of the #DiscoverIndies weekend I looked at what other games people were playing (or at least posting about).  I am in no way going to shame anyone for their choice of game as I know there would probably be people shaming me for my choice, but I did see some games that I have seen posted (semi-frequently) about before.  Then my brain went right back to Fall of Light and thought that I would still like to play this game for this month's event.  So I did.

I knew a bit going into the game, even by the trailer, that Fall of Light felt like an isometric Dark Souls, which was something that I was perfectly okay with.  The developers, RuneHeads, readily admit that Fall of Light was inspired by Dark Souls and ICO (although I was not familiar with the PlayStation 3 game before writing this article, although the name is vaguely familiar) and thankfully they do so because if they did not, then this game flies way over homage and into the realm of sad hilarity.  This is not to say that game comes across as a parody or attempting to steal assets from either ICO or Dark Souls, but there are a fair amount of similarities even if the games themselves are fairly different.  Everything from a cryptic lore-laden introduction that leaves a lot of unanswered questions, to tflaming text on the ground giving in-game help about kindling bonfires as safe places.  RuneHeads seems very aware of their target audience, but while the game is heavily speckled with references and homages to Dark Souls, the player is not expected or required to have any of that knowledge going into the game.

Hokay, so all of that aside, let me briefly talk about the game, what I have played, what I like, and what I do not.  

As mentioned above, I have played for 6 hours and 23 minutes and have, at present, died 35 times.  What I like about the way the game keeps track of your deaths is through cycles; the screenshot to the left was when I died for a fourth time.  What really intrigues me is the choice of wording here.  What exactly do cycles have to do with the overarching mythology and lore of this world?  Am I thinking too hard into the wording here?  Will something happen when I hit Cycle 50, or Cycle 100.  I am a little afraid that if I do hit either of those milestones, and having played Dark Souls I can say that this is a real possibility, that I may have to start over from the beginning, although there is no hint that that will be the case.

Lock-On Targeting is not required for the crossbow, but it certainly helps,
but it does reduce range.

One mechanic of the game that I do like, although it first took me by surprise and now I appreciate.  When you start the game, you find a standard long sword and a round shield.  As the game progresses, you do find other weapons to equip yourself, but that was when I found out that you only have two weapon slots in your inventory.  So by the point in the game when I found a dagger that glowed red presumably with a poison ability, I already had the beginning long sword, and a crossbow.  I told myself that I liked the reach of the long sword coupled with the defensiveness of the shield (which could also be used with the dagger), and I loved the ranged option of the crossbow.  So I left the dagger on the ground.  Then a few hours later, I found a two handed bastard sword.  At this point, I told myself that unless I switched my weapon, I would be relegating myself to what essentially was the starter set.  At the moment I have now moved on from the bastard sword and taken up the halberd (thinking again about my Dark Souls character using the Black Knight Halberd.  I am very excited to see what other weapons the game offers.

One interesting mechanic (interesting if you are not familiar with ICO like me), is that you can take the hand of your daughter to lead her through the areas.  At first I did not see the benefit of this since she follows you anyway, and whenever there is a battle, she hunkers down in the fetal position and, for the most part, is mostly safe.  Then I came to an area that included traps, and hand holding all of a sudden made sense.  But, it did not immediately click because as I avoided the shooting dart trap, the daughter was hit.  Thankfully though, her ashes/spirit (see below) respawned outside of the area of effect for the trap so I did not have to time the trap along with the animation in order to still be safe.  I also thought it was pretty cool that when you sprint while holding her hand, she will eventually lose her grip on your hand and fall, so constantly sprinting away from danger is not always an option.

Lastly, the game makes great use of particle effects, used most of the time when you go to resurrect your daughter after she is killed.  And the clip below is from the very beginning of the game, so there are not any spoilers here, other than the advice that you can fall off cliffs and die.

At the moment, I cannot think of anything about the game that I specifically do not like.  Sure, the game does get pretty pixely when there is a lot going on on screen, and you can notice in the above clip that the text does appear pretty blurry, but not so much that it is illegible.  I have also noticed some frame-rate drops, which could either be from me playing in hand-held mode (which means I should probably give docked-mode a try before I write the Game EXP article), but neither of those two factors make the game feel unplayable.  Maybe it is a result of Digerati's porting to the Switch? The area I am currently in is pretty big and I am a little afraid of getting lost/confused/turned around, but that will just end up being more familiar with the area/world.

So for the most part, I have been very happy with my selection and will find the time to complete it, hopefully before the end of the month.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental