PixlBit

I'm ending April this week even though there are a few more days left and moving on to my next theme. It was a grueling month for me who has so little patience for repeating levels and making that perfect jump; but I, like they do in special ops training, pushed beyond my limits as much as I could. I'll be putting up a blog of all the games I played over at wordpress very soon and a what-I-liked best of blog here. Here's what I got to this week before I decended into incremental games out of exhaustion.

Switch

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (rental) - A very cool remake of DKC with pumped up HD graphics. Levels are vaguely the same as the original but there are many new paths as if it were totally new levels, which they kind of are. I like, but I also get about as far as in the original which is about half.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (rental) - Oh so sweet is this Kirby platformer, but I just get tired of the 2D challenge: another obstacle to pass, another tricky situation to decifer. Can't I just explore a bit and find a thing hidden in another thing. That's kinda my jam, thanks.

Super Mario Wonder (rental) - These levels are so creative! I loved becoming an elephant and trunk-slapping punks. Inevitable repetition is needed, however, and I repeat my tramp to another game.

Kao the Kangaroo - I got it very cheap on a digital sale. I certainly like the punching ALOT with this kangaroo with magic boxing gloves. I got stuck though on a boss fight and trying to understand how to get a fire effect to release the last rune I needed to unlock a new level. Driving me to a walkthrough in this day and age just sends me to another game.

Yooka-Laylee - I got this for very cheap on a digital sale. I've played it on Xbox before this. It's modeled after the Banjo-Kazooie games and plays great. I really liked it until I had had about enough of platformers this month. I will say this, my favorite platformers are the 3D ones like this with lots of exploration and collectibles to find. Good battling is a bonus too and this game has it.

The Cool-Down on Xbox

Even I began to feel a little low and dirty after all these games with their easy achievements (mostly) and almost hands-off gameplay. I'll be happy to return to a more serious challenge next week.

Grim Idle (free-to-play)

There are two versions of this, one for Xbox One and another for Xbox Series X|S, and both give you 3K achievements in a short time. I, however, really like this auto-battler and wish the achievements were a little more challenging because I want to keep playing it. It's a 2D game where you manage a fighter as he mows down enemies along his auto-running, auto-battling path. You boost his abilities as he levels, grab collectibles, activate spells and upgrade and assign weapons and items for his use. Then you can just leave it run. Or you can leave the game entirely and it'll still accumulate resources for when you return. So, do as much or as little as you want. It's kind of the perfect antidote for 90s era, gruelingly difficult, platformers. But what's even better?

Clicker Heroes (free-to-play)

 

Litterally do nothing at all and it'll run like crazy. I left this game for 2 years and came back and got 250 Trillion gold. It calculated all that time and game activity and I was suddenly rich. Would that the stock market worked this way. However, the achievements in this are not easy and will take a load of time or cash for in-game purchases. This is a free-to-play after all. But, it's fun without spending a dime, like I play it.

DPS Idle (free-to-play)

I returned to this after a long break too and had a whopping load of cash to spend. This game is similar to Clicker Heroes but it uses a card system. I had to relearn it, but it was fun. I finally got the last achievements for this too. Not as easy to get as Grim Idle but doable.

Mob Control

My friend gifted this to me. It's clearly a phone game ported to Xbox but it's a good one. Just send your troopes into the gauntlet and try to not let a single enemy through or you fail. There's lots of basic strategy in how you choose your troop launcher, troop types and special powers as they become available to buy.

Starlit Kart Racing (free-to-play)

Starlit Adventures is a platformer but to heck with that, I'm goin' kart racing! This is surprisingly good. I had to get used to the controls a bit since the kart has what I would call "baby setting", which just means that you can't make sudden turns and crash easily. This makes precision driving a little bit tricky. You just have to anticipate your target a little more. I got way used to it after a while and couldn't stop trying to unlock every four race championship and boss race. The game can get mighty fast too when you boost your abilites and master the drift system, and I love ludicrous speed and loop D loops in racing games.

Faaast Penguin (free-to-play MMO)

So my local, same-room, gaming friend has been playing this racing game constantly the last few weeks, and I finally joined him. You're just a penguin on a skateboard (or other thing when you get more items) in with a dozen or so randos (and any friends you got to join) on a wild raceway across clouds, waterways, and canyons set in the sky like a kind of skylands. You can basically just steer and attack things to give you a jumping boost. It's wild fun without a net or any sort of skill required other than learning the intricacies of the race tracks to get to the front of the line. Achievements aren't quick to get though, so go for the long haul and have fun anyway.

And that's April as far as I'm concerned. Onto console generation 5 (PS/N64/GBC) and the turn-based RPG for May. I can't wait.