I’m Kinglink in the shortest month, which means it’s time for the Humble Choice February 2024 Review.
Now this is a great month with several huge titles and a lot of value, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve done an 8-hour stream on Twitch, played through these games, and I’m also familiar with four of them due to previous experiences, so I’m ready to talk about who will like these games, why you should or shouldn’t check them out, and who they are going to appeal to.
With that being said, let’s start with the title already on screen, a game I fully played through on Xbox Game Pass, and that means I’m a fan.
I’m Kinglink and last month I joined Retroachievements as an official developer, which means I can make achievement sets for pretty much whatever I want and there’s minimal oversight. It’s a great freedom for the developer and makes me feel like I’m part of a larger team or group, and that means I can try to develop interesting achievement sets.
But that’s not the end, it opens up a lot of doors, and one of those doors is the ability to participate in what’s known as DevJams. DevJams are a way to focus on a single system, especially systems that never had an official launch on the site, and try to work together to develop as many achievement sets for those games.
As this video comes out it’s the Sega Saturn’s turn, and honestly… I don’t have much to say about the Saturn, well I can say one thing, I think I’ve only ever seen one or two Sega Saturns if that and I’m definitely sure I’ve never seen one actually set up or running. That’s not super surprising, the console never sold well, like two million units in America. And the fifth generation was dominated by the PlayStation and even after that the N64 was everywhere, so I’m not surprised.
But I don’t want this to be a discussion of the Sega Saturn, a console I’ve really never seen, this is more a discussion of the games, and I have two amazing titles to talk about, there are technically three games in this video though.
I’m Kinglink and… ugh… Dynasty Warriors 9 is so … meh.
There’s something I’ve been struggling with for the last half of 2023, and while it’s older than that time period, I think Dynasty Warriors 9 is an example of it. It feels like games have been made to be more disposable. More designed to give you dopamine hits for enjoying it but also able to shake you off and make you go play the next thing the company produces before long or designed more with microtransaction than quality in mind. Nothing radically improves, and especially with sequels, there’s this feeling of average games being treated as great milestones because the fans want them.
But also not in Dynasty Warriors 9’s case. Oh boy no, Dynasty Warriors 9 is a perfect example of something much more problematic. It’s a sequel that simply isn’t as good. A sequel that tried something different, and has not found more than a couple of fans. And because of that… it just made me want to go back to where I first fell in love with the series.
Hey all, Kinglink here, I know it’s not the beginning of the month but I’m actually here to talk about one of my favorite games. And right here is where I first remember playing it.
And… ummm… I can just.. Pop it in… Nope… Ummm How about.. Ok. So maybe if I …
Ok maybe it’s the box, just put it on top.. So… This might be a problem …. And not just because I don’t remember where I put the actual Activision Anthology disc. Not like this would work on a PC but… the good news is we can go back to a video I did a couple of years ago, about our old friend Emulation. And before anyone asks, no this week’s game isn’t on Steam in any form I know of. Sadly… However thanks to PCSX2 we can look at this game and … oh boy.
I’m Kinglink, I’ve played a lot of Roguelites over the years, but when I got my Steam deck, there was one that really stood out and still gets a lot of playtime. That title, of course, is Brotato. But what is Brotato?
Brotato comes from that line of games that are similar to Vampire Survivors, almost casual rogue-lites with simple control schemes, usually just a single control stick. And while there are a lot of imitators, Brotato stands out for quite a few reasons. I mean, the first thing is you’re playing as a potato.
I want to call something out as I play, keep a close eye on my characters, while you can select your character, every upgrade your character buys seems to appear on their body which reminds me of Mr. Potato Head and can be quite funny.
Anyway, back to the genre, where Vampire Survivors and most of its similar games are endurance survival mode, Brotato is about surviving 20 waves of enemies with a simple shop that appears between each wave. It’s a relatively fast game to pick up and play, but also has enough moments where players can put down the title and take a breather, or in the case of the Steam Deck, turn it off for a while.
I’ve been thinking about this game a lot, even before it left early access, but now that I’ve put in some hours into the official release, it’s the perfect time to look into what makes this game stand out.
Spiritfarer is a beautiful game. No matter where I was in Spiritfarer, I was greeted with beautiful animations, interesting characters, and a world that I wanted to explore. Even after twenty hours, I can still say the game’s style really shined after having explored a decent amount of it.
Spiritfarer has the player taking on the role of Stella, and in co-op also Daffodil, a male cat. At the beginning of the game Stella takes on the roll of the Spiritfarer, taking from Charon. She is tasked with taking spirits she finds who are ready to pass on to the Everdoor, the game’s path to Hades.
But this is the end of each spirit’s journey. Most spirits will join Stella’s voyage for many hours, far longer than players might expect at the beginning. Stella will get a number of requests from her passengers, which will involve her having to manage a number of resources, and priority for requests.
Not For Broadcast is a novel concept. The player steps into the shoes of an editor of a live news broadcast on his first day and must use split-second decisions to cut the news together as it goes out over the air. It’s a unique idea for a game, but also one that works well. Players start with their first broadcast as they go through accelerated training where they learn about how to deal with camera controls, interference, and making a good “edit” as it’s called to keep the viewers interested. With each broadcast having three segments, the final of three segments in the first broadcast, the game also drops the idea of swearing that requires the age-old censor button.
The first broadcast does well-introducing players to the concept and why the game might work, the creation of a news program is interesting, and while the topic covered is a simple election, the characters and production values of the feeds that the player is challenged to tie together keeps the game moving. The writing, directing, and acting all are done extremely well for a small video game studio. The final segment of the broadcast does feel a bit corny but it also shows that the game can have a little fun with the story. When the newly elected prime minister who is drinking starts to cuss, it still feels like it can fit in with the concept of a news program even if it’s a bit bizarre.
Players are graded based on how they conform to the rules of the broadcast, mostly in how well their edit focuses on the action, or speaker, while not lingering too long on one shot, as well as the timing for transitions, commercial breaks, and if players let any swears be broadcast.
Like A Dragon: Ishin is either the first Like a Dragon game in the West or the latest in a long line of a major franchises, depending on your view of the naming convention. This was created by RGG Studio and they are well known for their “Yakuza” series, though that series is now named “Like a Dragon” which is a direct translation of the original series title, Ryu Ga Gotoku.
However, Like A Dragon: Ishin, or Ishin as I’ll call it for brevity’s sake, is a stand-alone title, for the most part. However, the connection to the entire Like A Dragon Franchise is important. While this is a fresh new story in a new time period with new characters, every major character in Like A Dragon: Ishin uses a similar face to the rest of the Like A Dragon Series.
This might be the most important part of the game because for some it’s a little too on the nose, and for others, this is pure fan service, which is what fans of the series might enjoy. Many characters who no longer are part of the larger franchise, appear once more in Ishin, and in many ways, this works.
The escape room craze has grown over the last decade, as a concept it’s interesting, players are locked in a room and solve a variety of puzzles leading to the ability to get out of the location.
Escape games also have been around and were created around the same time as the Escape Room idea, so Escape Simulator isn’t a new idea, however, it’s an attempt to get on that same craze.
Escape Simulator has the player choose an Escape Room from a list of 25 levels, included within are four sets of five levels in a themed chapter, but each room can be approached in any order. From there, players are given fifteen or more minutes to solve all the puzzles in the room and escape them.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is another attempt at the ultimate power fantasy. Giving players the ability to pull on a mask and take over the role of a famous hero has become a rather typical setup for video games, whether they be based on an IP, or if the hero or superhero was created for games.
When the focus is on telling a story or having players experience the role, the most important thing to the whole experience is how immersed players can become with the game, and that’s one of the reasons why so many people say “you feel like Spider-Man” because in many ways you do.
You’ll be able to web sling throughout a video game version of New York, fight famous villains, and be led on a powerful story as you learn more about the world that Spider-Man finds himself. The story starts with Spider-Man taking down Wilson Fisk, known as Kingpin. The story is definitely a core reason to play the game, so it’s important not to spoil yourself fully, but I also think the story is the one part of the game I have a major issue with.
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