Ikki Unite (Switch, PC)
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Posted on September 18th, 2024 by
In Japan during the 80s there was an arcade game called Ikki by Sunsoft. Ikki means ‘peasant revolution’ and that’s exactly what you did in the game. You play as a poor farmer as you run around fields collecting money and throwing sickles at evil ninjas. It never came to the US, probably because American kids didn’t want to play a game about a peasant revolution, and who wants to play a game called “Icky” anyway? Ikki was also ported to the Japanese NES, or Famicom as well. There it gained notoriety as a really bad game, but since it came out during the Famicom’s big heyday, it still sold well. It was one of Sunsoft’s first Famicom games, and was probably a good stepping stone for them as they would eventually become one of Nintendo’s best developers for the 8-bit system. And now, nearly 40 years later, you can play a new Ikki game with Ikki Unite. It’s a multiplayer version of the game that adds elements from popular titles like Vampire Survivor. It’s available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Unplugged: The Quest Kids (Boardgame)
Posted on September 17th, 2024 by
Do you like adventure games but your kids are a bit too young to be fighting dragons that poisons them and hinders their movement by 5 feet? The Quest Kids is a dungeon-crawling board game aimed squarely at that no-quite-yet reading level or above. Players search a dungeon, discarding the appropriate cards if they need to “scare off” a monster and collect its loot. Once the dungeon is cleared, the player with the most stars (from treasure and defeated monsters) wins the game. The Quest Kids is a pretty cool achievement for its age range, managing to bring in much of that dungeon-crawl fun without a heavy rules overhead. I happen to bring it up now as there is a Kickstarter for an expansion ending very soon.
The Quest Kids
Designer: Dustin McMillian
Publisher: Treasure Falls Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 5+
Time: 20-45 min
(review copy provided by publisher)
SokoMage (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on September 16th, 2024 by
Help a wizard reach a magical crystal in a forest in the puzzle game SokoMage. It’s a block pushing puzzler available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Switch, PS4, PS5, PC)
Posted on September 13th, 2024 by
Oh wow, what game did I just play? What game did I just play?!? Thank Goodness You’re Here! is one of the weirdest games I’ve played in a long time. It was published by the same folks who also published Untitled Goose Game and the PlayDate, if that gives you any indication of what this game might be like. You are a little man, only reaching knee high to everyone else in the game. Your boss tasks you to meet with the mayor of another town to sell what your business provides. But the mayor is busy for a few hours, so you pass the time by helping out the townspeople. You do this by walking around, sometimes in an overhead perspective and sometimes in a 2D platforming fashion. You can jump with one button and slap with the other button. Yes that’s how you interact with things and talk with people is by slapping them. The game is like playing an interactive cartoon and it’s so chock full of British humor that I swear my Switch was going to start oozing bangers and mash. The game is available on Switch, PlayStation consoles, and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
The New Denpa Men (Switch)
Posted on September 11th, 2024 by
One of the things I liked about the Nintendo 3DS handheld is how much the games used the innovative features of the console. A lot of games would read WiFi signals and pings from other nearby 3DS owners (they called that StreetPass) and would do things with them. One of the games that did stuff like this was The Denpa Men. In that game, you could catch these little guys that looked like a cross between a Mii and a Pikmin, and then you’d send them off on dungeon crawling turn based RPG adventures. They made like, three of these games on the 3DS! I vaguely remember playing one, although I think I just played a demo of it and decided I didn’t like it enough to invest more time in it. But now there’s a new one on the Switch called The New Denpa Men. It’s free to play, so I decided I’d at least check it out and write a review of it.
Gravitators (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on September 9th, 2024 by
Gravitators is a twin stick shooter where you pilot a variety of ships as you blast enemies, navigate tricky mazes, pick up objects, and solve puzzles. It’s available on current PlayStation and Xbox consoles but reviewed on PS4 here.
Tiny Pixels vol. 1: Ninpo Blast (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on September 4th, 2024 by
You are a ninja riding a hoverbike shooting stars and knives at bugs and other weird critters in Ninpo Blast. It’s a super simple vertically scrolling shooter and is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Cattie (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on September 2nd, 2024 by
Help a cat make it to the exit in this challenging 2D precision platformer. It features retro black and white graphics that remind me of the games I used to play on my Apple ][+. Catie is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Aero the Acro-Bat (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on August 28th, 2024 by
Back in the early to mid 90s, 2D platformers starring a cartoony animal mascot with attitude were all the rage, thanks to the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog. One of the more prolific ones was Aero the Acro-Bat. His game got a sequel, a spinoff starring one of the antagonists (Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel), and an enhanced port of the first game on Game Boy Advance many years later. I actually rented the first one back in the day, and I honestly didn’t like it that much. I didn’t remember much about it except the goals were a bit unclear. But at the time, I was getting pretty tired of all those mascot platformers (I didn’t even like a lot of the Sonic games), and I really only got back into those kinds of games once Klonoa came around on the PlayStation. Plus at the time I was more into 16-bit RPGs (it’s kind of the opposite now). But I’m willing to give Aero the Acro-Bat a second chance, because now you can play it on all modern consoles (reviewed on PS4 here). I think this is the Super Nintendo version because of the Mode 7 bonus stages. The cool thing is that later this year, we’ll be able to play the other games in the series on modern consoles, too!
EvoMon (Switch)
Posted on August 26th, 2024 by
Way back in the 90s when I wrote game reviews for The Dallas Morning News, I got to see first hand how Nintendo was going to market Pokémon in the US, and I knew it would be big. So I called my editor and requested that I cover anything Pokémon related, and for a few years he kept that promise. I like to say that Pokémon helped pay my way through college. Anyway, not only did I get to review and cover everything Pokémon related, but also any rip-offs and copies riding the coattails of its popularity. This included things like DigiMon, Monster Rancher, etc. EvoMon on Nintendo Switch reminds me of some of those knock-offs, and it even looks and feels like something that would’ve been on the Game Boy Color or NEO GEO Pocket Color, two handhelds out at the time! In EvoMon, you’ll play mini-games to train and evolve your monsters so they can battle others and you can win badges!
