Recent reviews by CinemaFromage

There was a time in my life where the original Shadowgate on NES consumed all of my attention. Friends and I would sit in Biology class drawing maps and comparing notes, then spending the evenings on the phone doing the same. This lasted until the end of the game; it was pretty great.

Naturally, when I heard that there was a remake of Shadowgate coming to Steam, my curiosity was piqued immediately. It was easy to worry though that my fondness of the game only existed in the rose colored glasses of nostalgia. Thankfully, once I got my hands on the remake, I discovered that Shadowgate was in fact a great game and the remake was pretty great in its own right.

I've never been one much for modern adventure games, but Shadowgate seems to be a shining example of the genre. Its packed with some great graphics updates and a great score. The game play proves to be fun too. I was worried that a point and click style adventure game wouldn't hold my attention. Since this game has a good story that gets unveiled the further you journey with hints and clues scattered about the castle, it manages to be pretty engrossing. It's common finding myself coming back to the game sooner than expected just to find out more story. This is a strong trait for a strong adventure game!

If my words don't convince you, check out my ongoing Let's Play series of the game over on my youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc2ULPOctS7qOot8P3lGOxvEVhy3vfr-S

This is a solid little top down/twin stick shooter! It has some bugs here and there, but the game play is pretty great. If you like the twin stick genre.

The gunplay is accurate and you'll notice some differences when you upgrade your weapons which makes it rewarding. The turret system didn't interest me much at first, but it's growing on me. The graphics aren't mind blowing, but they make for a fun atmosphere for running around and blowing up zombies! The story is skippable, I haven't paid much attention to it. I'm just here to shoot stuff in twin stick style, which is ace.

As for bugs, I've noticed on a map or two where it doesn't register the end of a wave. That's kind of a bummer, because you have to quit your current game. There's at least one invisible item I can think of so far that I've ran into as well, which is difficult mostly becase there's a perk achivement attached to it. Otherwise, I've had nothing but fun with this one. There's also online co-op supposedly, but I haven't attempted it and the boards state there's a lot of problems with firewalls. Be aware if that's your primary goal for this one.

There's an upgrade system in which you can buy better weapons, stats, etc. and it all works pretty well. It serves as a good carrot to go back and replay maps to grind out levels and beef up your character for the later maps. However, there is no real tutorial that I found that shows you all of this stuff. Not a big deal, you can figure it out easily enough. You just may be confused for a bit.

For it's current $1.19 price tag in the Halloween sale, GunsNZombies is a steal! For the full $8, I may not have jumped on it so quickly, but $5 feels like a great price for it. If you like twin stick's, come play it'll be fun.

I love platformers. They take me back to the days when I was a kid, sitting up late at night, trying to get through various incarnations of the genre in the early days of NES. I've never claimed to be good at them, mind you, but I enjoy them a lot.

8BitBoy didn't seem like much at first glance. It came in a bundle, which means I was after something else in said bundle most likely, and 8BitBoy just came along for a ride. One day I was digging through my library to find a cure for a sleepy Sunday afternoon, and I happened to catch the platformer tag when I scrolled across it. I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a spin.

The first time through? 8BitBoy feels a bit off. You go in expecting Mario, but the controls just aren't the same. They're a bit more floaty, not quite as precise. This will throw you off a bit, but press on. As you dig a little deeper, you start get the hang of the controls and the game starts to feel more familar. You're progressing through the maps, you're stomping on birds and making jumps. Then there's that special moment when you're standing on a ledge and accidentally push the control into the wall, and you slip through and discover a secret room...and now 8BitBoy has its hooks in you!

8BitBoy is a love song to those platformers of old. You will notice elements of them all throughout. While looking back so fondly, the game still manages to be its own beast. It's hard. Hell, it's very hard! It's also packed full of secrets, warps to other zones, many many maps and more. All it makes for a very fun, low budget platformer that you may not have noticed otherwise!

Finally, my dreams of being being a flying cat head, shooting globs of ♥♥♥♥ with lasers coming out of my face have finally come true! But as often happens, sometiems you dream of something so hard that when it finally comes to fruition...it turns out you're left with nothing but sweaty bed sheets, dried drool in your beard and eye boogers a mile deep.

I almost made it 30 minutes, which is impressive because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. At all. There were some words slapped on screen that if I squinted just right I could catch the first two or three of them. I couldn't really make out the rest because they were slapped over the top of the boss I happened to be fighting at the time. Oops.

But, I could probably adjust the graphics settings to fix those issues, maybe make the text a bit easier to read. That's what I would have said if there was actually a menu. Any menu at all. (What I'm trying to say is there are no menus.) (None, except Start and Continue.)

Phew.

So then, game play. Well...that's a mixed bag. I like some shmups. They're a good time. Even the cheapo ones. Those, I can usually use a 360 pad with though. You know...analog sticks to move my Flying Cat Head of Doom back and forth quickly. But...no. Let's use some clunky ass WASD and just hold down the left mouse button to shoot FREAKIN' LASERS out of my FREAKIN' CAT HEAD. Cause why not? Even this wouldn't be so bad, if I could...you know...aim my laser. They kinda take care of aiming for you...if you can get close enough for their aim thing to take over. Then you should be okay. Maybe. Just keep holding that mouse button down and moving yourself around with the left hand. Don't get too close to the wall though. You're gonna get stuck. If you get to close to the wall, you're gonna have a bad time.

There's also a whole row of spells and powers across the bottom I can use! I don't know what the hell any of them do, but they're there! One makes some big squiggly spiral show up some random spot on screen. No where near the dude I'm trying to shoot. Another surrounds me in a giant gum drop. Another one turns my cat head blue. Another shoots a light beam I can actually aim! I don't know if does any damage or not. The others...I dunno, I can't even make out the icon. I pressed them, but uh...I don't know that they did anything. I figured I'd read up on them in menus but...well, you know how that works out. I picked up some blue things too, but your guess is as good as mine as to what they do!

PLUS...read the community boards. Stolen assets, all sorts of stuff.

So if my review is not exactly clear, what I'm trying to say is....don't.

I usually tend to stay away from Early Access games on Steam, but Broforce has been calling to me. I haven't heard anybody that's played it that didn't like it, so I gave it a shot and man...I love it! With my limited experience with E.A., this has to be one of the best 'non-complete' games I've played yet.

The game play is straight forward and simple; rescue bros, shoot bad guys, blow ♥♥♥♥ up! And man, it is so fun. The terrain is highly destructible, so your sense of causing utter destruction is really grand.

While the game play itself is simple, the games difficulty is quite tough. You will die, frequently. You're going to swear a lot too. But with the game's restart feature, it's painless to just keep coming back and trying over and over until you can get through to the end. Different unlocked bros have different skills as well. Some are shot guns, some are machine guns, some have grenades, some have knives. They each add a great little spin on the game to keep it fresh and exciting. And on top of all that? This game's pretty funny too!

Now again, this is Early Access. So the game's incomplete. Which blows my mind, because in its current state, Broforce is a blast. (Pun intended.) The developers, Free Lives, are adding content to this regularly, so there's also no fear of this becoming abandoned. Just last week they added two new bros and some game play tweaks to go with them. It's a really solid outfit and if this isn't on your wish list yet, I'd add it a.s.a.p!

I've tried a few times to get into this game and well...it just doesn 't grab me. It controls fine, for a game that originated in tablets, but at the same time, it doesn't feel very deep at all. It's not horrible and there are some that may in fact dig it. I just didn't connect with me at all.

Pac-Man Championship DX+ is a hell of package. It’s super stylish. There’s a bunch of different art styles for the different maps. Some are glossy and 3D, some are pixelated and retro. All of this is layered on top of a great soundtrack of electronic dance type music that really helps you to zero in and focus. It’s a bit trance-like to be honest! (Oh hey, that’s probably trance music, isn’t it)

Then, you get to the game play modes. This is where the true hook lies. Much like it’s grand father from the 80’s, the game play is simple. each map has a series of challenges, score attacks, time attacks and ghost combo’s. Some last five minutes, some last ten, while some are just a matter of ‘collect X many apples’ to complete. All of the modes are straight forward on what the want you to accomplish and soon, you’ll find yourself revisiting the maps over and over just to out-do your previous score.

DX+ does have a scoreboard where you compare yourself to your friends scores on steam. This is another carrot to keep you going back to improve. The only real beef I have with this one is that the scoreboard functions are pretty clunky. It’s not always clear on how best to compare your scores, but the game itself is so addicting, you’ll keep on playing regardless if you’re frustrated without competing.

Man, I love this game.

Breakout style games and I go way back. They're a ton of fun and there's something 'zen-like' in their simplicity. These types of games work well for me, in that I can zone out, turn the brain off and it serves really well to make me concentrate on that keeping that little ball moving when I need to tune out.

Wizorb fits the bill quite nicely for it's $1.49 sale price. Heck, it would suffice at its full price of $2.99 if you Breakout and Arkanoid are your thing. The game play is the same, move paddle, bounce your balls, break blocks. Wizorb gives the formula a bit of spice though by adding in magic elements and a quest mode where you try to rebuild a city. Heck, there's even boss fights, which is a pretty cool change.

I'll be honest...the RPG elements are largely kind of pointless. You get fireballs and 'wind' that doesn't do a whole heck of a lot. The village bit you're saving up to rescue? You'll finish that off right quick. But, that's okay. As I said, these elements are here for flavor and nothing more. The core gameplay, the important part, is straight up breakout, challenging, and a lot of fun.

So...this game.

I like the concept of Race the Sun. Fly fast, avoid obstacles, keep going! Pretty simple really. I don't even mind the bland graphics. They service the purpose.

You know what I don't like about Race the Sun? I really suck at it! That's more from 40 year old crappy reflexes than the game's fault though.

Do you have better reflexes than middle aged man? You might like it. I can see the potential in there. I'd say the $9.99 asking price is a bit steep though. I got it for $2 or 3 off of Indie Game Stand, so keep your eyes peeled. It's a good value at it's $3.99 price.

I love platformer games. They're such a nostalgia blast, taking me back to the old days where I was parked on the living room floor, 5 ft. from the TV trying master that epic double jump without falling in the hole for the 10th time in a row. Rayman Origins came along and proved that that old school platforming action could still be viable, fun and challenging. Now, Rayman Legends has managed to come along and actually improve on the foundation that Origins laid!

Rayman Legends packs a ton of fun in one single package. You have unlocks to collect, in the form of lums, characters, monsters and even old Origins levels. You have challenging platformer action. You have varied platformer action! You have a great sense of humor. You have a great art style to make it all shine. It's really great.

Sometimes, games of these types reach a point where the game becomes too difficult. It makes the experience nothing but frustrating and then the fun falls off fast. Even Origins suffered from this from time to time. In Legends, they've managed to find a perfect balance in the difficulty. Most maps are challenging, without becoming anger inducing. You might have to take two or three tries and a particular jump, but the pattern will click. These types of games can also suffer from repetition, but Legends break that up as well. You'll find the puzzle style changing from level to level, even within the same groups, keeping the game feeling fresh and entertaining.

Beyond all the platformer action, I'm really impressed with the style and art direction going on in the game. The end levels in each section doing something really great in how the tie in the games music with the game play. This really stood out when I was playing a boss level to a Rayman-esque rendition of Ram Jam's "Black Betty". As I came to obstacles, it because clear my jumps were timed to the drum beat of the song. As you progressed, hearing that familiar back beat, you noticed the entire level was timed to it. I couldn't help by smile and play the level over a couple times, just to marvel at the fun of it all. They do this on every level and it's an attention to detail that you don't see to often!

So, should you snag Rayman Legends? Yes. Yes you should. Don't even debate it. Really, this game is worth it at any price. Definitely bring your game pad though, I can't imagine pulling this game off with a keyboard and mouse.