I can’t say I’ve heard of this old Japanese game before (actually, I’m pretty sure I’ve come across its name, but that’s about it), but now that I have, I really want to play it!
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Guess what? I finished Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! last night :D
And, yes, as you can see in the screenshot above, I brought my precious Alolan Dugtrio along with me for the final battles :3
This is just the second Pokémon game I’ve finished, by the way. The only other: the original version of Pokémon Red.
I think I’m done with the game now, even though there’s still more to do and more to catch, but we’ll see.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I’m glad I decided to buy and play it in the end ^_^
Three hours later, I’d reached its end credits. Do I still think it’s a Super Mario World ripoff? Not at all. In fact, I now consider myself a pretty big Super Mario Land 2 fan.
I achieved a new personal best high score in Black Bird for the Nintendo Switch last night–just over 27 million.
And it’s still only good enough for 112th place on the worldwide leaderboard :(
Oh, well, I’m not giving up–especially since I’ve yet to finish the game’s “True” mode O_O (You read that right. I get to the final boss almost every time I play this mode, but I’ve yet to actually beat it. Gah!)
I’ve put right around 26 hours into this magnificent shmup so far, by the way. I guess you could say I like it just a bit ;)
And if you’re looking for some advice that’ll help you finish the game or improve your high score, check out this blog post of mine: “Black Bird tips, tricks, and tactics”
I’m going to be updating that tips write-up in the next few days, by the way. I’m also going to publish yet another post about Black Bird by the end of the week. So keep an eye out for both if you’re at all into this game. (And believe me, you should be into it!)
Don’t be fooled by the majority of the Black Bird screenshots you’ve probably seen floating around the interwebs: this just-released Nintendo Switch + PC shoot ‘em up isn’t as colorless as they make it seem.
Granted, Black Bird doesn’t look like a rainbow threw up on it like its most obvious source of inspiration (Sega’s Fantasy Zone) does, but it’s still pretty damn vibrant–as the screens above hopefully make clear.
Even if it weren’t, though, Black Bird would be well worth playing. And that’s not just because one of the people who had a hand in making it is Yoshiro Kimura of Chulip and Little King’s Story fame.
As far as I can tell, this music video was created to accompany/promote the recently released (in Japan) Nintendo Switch game called Work x Work.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because a bunch of talented and well known people worked on it. Among them are Nobuyuki Inoue and Nobuhiro Imagawa, both of whom had a hand in Mother 3′s creation.
Anyway, the song here is called はたらきたくない, or “I Don’t Want to Work.” (Full Japanese and English lyrics here.) That’s fitting, as one of Work x Work’s main characters is a part-time worker at a dungeon-themed amusement park.
I haven’t played Work x Work yet, but I will soon. I broke down and ordered a copy via Amazon Japan last night in a moment of weakness brought on by memories of all the fun I had with another FuRyu release, The Alliance Alive for 3DS (read my impressions of it here), as well as my current, beyond-positive experience with a Switch title–Onion Games’ Black Bird–that seems just as quirky as this one.
Ushiro - Unreleased PSP Version [TGS 2008 Trailer]
Ushiro is a supernatural/horror-themed JRPG, originally in development for the PSP by Level-5 (Professor Layton, Yo-Kai Watch). It was announced at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, but wasn’t heard from afterward and was assumed to be cancelled. A recent Famitsu interview suggests that the game is being re-worked for the Nintendo Switch.
I know Ushiro isn’t coming out anytime soon, but I’m looking forward to it all the same. Its original incarnation (showcased in the 10-year-old trailer above) seemed *so* interesting!
Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk is pleasingly procedural ⊟
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks slowly winding my way through the labyrinthine plot of Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk. I’ve been taking my time with it, picking it up in fits and starts – not because it’s failed to hold my interest, but simply because I’ve been busy with other things.
Besides, I find that a mystery adventure game, like a mystery novel, is best enjoyed when the mood strikes, and when I have a decent amount of time to sit down with it and make progress. Like, say, a round-trip flight.
The main mystery of Ghost of the Dusk seems straightforward at first, but expands in ways I probably shouldn’t tell you about. Here’s the synopsis from Nintendo.com:
A shaky lead about a stiff in a haunted house puts Jake Hunter on a perilous path of clues and dark secrets. When the owner of the home comes clean that the place is cursed and the body count starts rising, Jake realizes he’s facing a threat unlike any other.
Solving the mystery means a lot of talking – to Jake Hunter’s police detective pal Kingsley, his linguist assistant Yulia, witnesses, and suspects. It also means pixel-hunt investigations in crime scenes. It means going back and forth from location to location to apply new clues to old scenes.
What it doesn’t mean is brilliant flashes of insight. Jake Hunter is pointedly Not a Genius – deducing why a man with an exam table in his living room is called “Doc” by the local homeless is a multi-stage process for Jake. Instead of solving impossible puzzles and making leaps of logic, Jake solves cases by carefully investigating and talking to everyone – a lot more like a real police detective than a fictional one, I’d guess. Each clue builds additional understanding of the circumstances, which then leads to another angle of investigation. The case itself is unusually high-profile, but Jake still solves it with solid, down-to-earth detective work. So, in fact, does Yulia, who proves to be just as meticulous an investigator, and universally acknowledged and respected for her skill.
I enjoy the contrast from, say, Phoenix Wright, who doesn’t even realize he’s solving a case until he randomly presents evidence.
Jake Hunter is more grounded than that, his world a little more like ours – even if, like Ace Attorney, it’s unclear whether he lives in America, Japan or some combination of the two. It’s less jokey, less flashy, but still removed enough from reality that I don’t feel like a creep for being entertained by a murder case.
And Jake Hunter’s playstyle of methodically speaking to everyone, searching every location, and thinking through every question of an interrogation – really, thinking about what you’re going to ask is a mechanic in this game – is really comforting.
I’m still not used to Jake’s hair, though. And I’m not sure why there’s cherub bum on the bottom screen pretty much at all times.
Hmmm, I think I may ask for Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk (3DS) for my upcoming birthday. It doesn’t sound (or look) quite as brilliant as, say, Hotel Dusk, but it may scratch the same itch…