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I still really dig this game!
It’s been roughly a year since SteamWorld Dig first hit the scene on the 3DS eShop. Now, Nintendo fans can experience the game on the Wii U in full 1080p HD, with some exclusive content. If you didn’t catch it, I had an opportunity to review the game when it released last year and I absolutely adored it. Digging back through the mines on the Wii U has only solidified the strong love I already felt for the game.
Embrace the flames!
To help you cope with the encroaching demise of online Wii gaming, your PixlBit family is here to help you send the service off to its eternal existence before it all ends on May 20th. What better game to do this with than one of the few that had a significant online community: Mario Kart Wii. Join us on Thursday, May 15th starting at 9:00 p.m. EDT to play Mario Kart races until we puke blue shells. If all goes according to plan, we’ll also record the event so you can see how it played out from at least one other person’s perspective. To get in on the fun, just post your Mario Kart code in the comments and we’ll add it to a big list for everyone to tediously enter into their Wiis.
Babysitting with Yoshis – 2014 edition.
I’m the type of guy that doesn’t think its fair to compare one game to another, but in the case of Yoshi’s New Island, an exception has to be made. It’s the second follow-up to the SNES classic, Yoshi’s Island, and Yoshi’s Island is a very tough game to top. On the positive side, Yoshi's New Island does a lot of things better than the previous entry in the series, Yoshi’s Island DS, like getting rid of the annoying baby-switching mechanic and doling out some clever levels. On the other hand, it adds some new, underutilized mechanics, disappointing boss battles, and turns a definitive ability into a shallow gyroscope mini-game.
What if Zelda could jump?
This time on Backloggers, I'm joined by two new guests, Chris and Jamie, to discuss our second retro game, the Playstation classic Alundra. On the block for discussion are some of the other games in the "Stalker" franchise (it's not what you think!) Working Designs legacy and our relative histories with their titles, and our familiarity with similar games, like the Zelda franchise.
The plot thickens.
Something about the atmosphere surrounding Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us has been a huge draw to me. The dark and twisted story surrounding some of history’s most endearing fairy tales makes for some really interesting narratives, because of our ingrown attachment to these characters. Episode 1, “Faith,” set a great precedent for episodes to come and Episode 2, “Smoke and Mirrors,” continues to build on that foundation.
Shipwrecked.
PolyPusher Studios, the Irish developer behind Montague’s Mount, describes its latest project as a “psychological rollercoaster ride through isolation, desolation, and one man’s tortured mind.” Its perception of the game it created doesn’t quite align with the game it actually released, where the rollercoaster is more like rush hour traffic, and the only tortured mind is my own. Montague's Mount is a first-person adventure/puzzle game about a man who awakens on the beach of a deserted fishing island, unable to remember who he is or why he’s there. Promising although the concept sounds, concept only goes so far without the execution to back it up.
Cut the grass or die.
It’s getting late again, and not to mention, cold. I’m doing my best not to head farther east to satisfy my curiosity about that peninsula, and I’ve got to resist or I’m going to die – again. I’m hoping to make it through the winter. With what I’ve learned from the last few times I’ve survived that long there is a chance I might make it, but then I find an entirely new way to screw it up – again. And so it goes over and over, slowly learning, slowly progressing, slowly making it through another day all to fail and start back at the beginning – again. Somehow, the repetitive advancement through the generated worlds of Don’t Starve stays engaging and challenging for quite a while, until you will inevitably be unable to force yourself to toil through the opening days – again.
Another Kickstarter darling finally sees the light of day.
Say what you want about Kickstarter, but it has breathed games into existence that otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance, and allowed artists to construct personal expressions without having to resort to eating dog food to survive. The end results may not always be extraordinary, but sometimes they are still triumphant, as with Lilly Looking Through, a Kickstarter success that asked for $18,000 and ended up with $33,000+ for a point-and-click adventure starring a little girl with time-traveling goggles. The game is beautiful, but brief, with amazing art direction and sublime animation.
Another year, another Skylanders game.
Three years later and the Skylanders craze is still in full swing. From kids to adults, it seems that everyone loves collecting and playing with these colorful characters. The latest iteration of the series brings a new wrinkle to the toys as well as to the game, but neither truly changes the tried-and-true formula. Platforming mechanics add a bit more depth to the traversal and combat mechanics, while the swap ability makes it a bit more fun to play with the physical toys by mixing and matching tops and bottoms. There’s no doubt that the whole kit is quite nifty, but as a game, Skylanders Swap Force still leaves something to be desired.
