Steamworld Dig 2

I smell treasure

The sequel has arrived for the Switch and the first game was rather enjoyable. It continues a time later after the first game when Dot, the girl robot from the first game arrives to look for Rusty after he disappeared. She arrives at the nearby town and starts to investigate some strange earthquakes and find this floating spirit named Fin that will be your sarcastic partner during the adventure. Rest of the game works like the first one, mine for minerals, get it back and upgrade your things and go even deeper. The game isn't only the mine and town this time around since you can travel to the left and right for even more things like a temple for some suicide cult and... another way into the main mine, but it at least feels bigger.

Mine Mine Mine All Day Long!

The game took me a bit less than 10 hours to finish and 74 % of all secrets found. The end game serves up a bit of a twist. Playing through it I believed Rusty would be the end boss, that he had been possessed by the evil machine in the last game. The game even encourage this theory when you meet mutant humans living at the bottom of the mine that tells you that Rusty built several machines that seems to correlate with the earthquakes. After disarming them the way to the humans are blocked so after entering their sewer system you confront Rosie that have taken Rusty and uses him to power her mech-suit. The machines Rusty installed was to siphon the energy from the core so it wouldn't explode. I had to do the boss battle twice since the first time I wasn't that prepared, but after changing cog-upgrades it worked a lot better. In the end the spirit Fin stays behind to teleport Dot and Rusty to the surface so that everyone can escape on rockets that was built during the course of the game... and then the planet explodes. I guess they are setting up the world of Steamworld Heist since that is in space and a destroyed planet usually fits the bill. I really need to finish that game as well. Overall a fun game.

The Darkside Detective (Switch)

I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!

Look, a pixel retro point and click game ported to the switch filled to the brim with 80's references. It was a fun diversion for a couple of hours to play through the 6 different cases given to you through the game. The framing story is that you are a Detective on the Twin Lake Police department working on the cases involving the Darkside, a parallel universe where people looks more like ghost and such. Togheter with officer Dooly you try to stop all the occultist and nightmarish creatures that invade "Lightside". 

That as much as an overaching story you will get, since there isn't anyone. They make callbacks to the earlier cases, but it's more a commentary on the design of the game. Self-referential humour. So the first case is a teaching case and it's rather good. You been called in on a missing child case and it turns out she created a portal through the Darkside so you follow her, but before you can get her out the nanny knocks out Dooly and prepares her plan to push the child's parents through the portal and usurp the inheritance from the child as the last guardian of the child. You defeat her by tricking her to stay at the Darkside and then wipe out the runes creating the portal. I liked this case. And sadly it doesn't follow up. The next case is just you helping Dooly return a book to the library which have been overrun by ghosts due to a hidden occult library within. The next is a subway station that have switched trains between the Light- and Darkside. The third Dooly going missing while camping with the Bloodwolfes (a scout-like organisation) that turns out he just help a Loch Ness Like monster trying to avoid some reporter and the fourth being in the police station where some gremlins running amok. And they are just absurd situations. The fifth case goes up again as the town is overrun by zombies and it turns out some Darksiders have entered their world to rise a former mob boss from the dead and you gotta stop them. The sixth and final episode are apparently a holiday special since the credits rolled after case 5 and its just you and Dooly visiting the local mall to get some last minute presents and Doolys nephew gets turned into a troll by Krampus that you have to stop and then find the real Santa. The case is called Buy Hard and you end up in a white skirt, without shoes, with a lighter in the air vent. Most fun I had with that case.

A trip through the Darkside

So case 1 and 5 are the best, but the other has some humorous moments and most characters are fun to speak to. Although the self-awareness of being a game and such takes you out of it, but since it's shown right at the start instead of like the last minute (*host*Thimbleweed Park*host*). Felt a bit short and it was rather easy, most trouble was the last case and I got stuck at the puzzle to get some milk. Didn't get any clue that you could use the vaccum on the balcony above the eggnog wagon. And I think I found a glitch since I couldn't move on from the first screen of the vent until I restarted the game. Since the game saves apparently all the time no problem, but it was a bit irritating. Overall a fun experience, but I would like another game with a more overarching plot that ties each case together. 

Shantae and the Pirates Curse (Switch)

And I bought the game for a third time... help me.

And yet again I bought and played through the third game in the Shantae series. Not much to say than that it still holds up, but it feels that it was 3 years ago since I played it last. Many things still felt unfamiliar and it took me some time to figure out some puzzles. All in all it took me less than 7 hours to speed through it, and afterwards I played through the pirate mode just above 3 hours so I can probably cut some time, but I don't know if I will do it anytime soon. And when I do I probably will be as lost and confused starting this up, but it is fun to run through a game I at least know some things of when playing.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The first Metroidvania

So I finally finished Symphony of the Night on my PS3. It was really fun playing through a classic Metroidvania game. Need to dig through my DS collection. Anyway, this game starts with a look back at the end of Rondo of Blood when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula. Afterwards it turns to Alucard, the son of Dracula rushing toward the castle as it has once again been summoned to this world. There he meets Death that takes his weapons and armour. Wandering the castle Alucard finds Richter being the new lord of the castle and Maria trying to save him.Behind the scenes lurks Shaft who mind controlled Richter to summon Dracula and it's up to Alucard to stop him.

The game is a mix of platforming, exploration and RPG mechanics. Grind for exp to get better stats, get items that help you in different situations and explore to find some lying around. It also allows you to play it differently to your liking. You don't have to use the armour that absorbs the damage from the optional hardest boss in the game, but to me it sure was welcome. One thing I didn't like was that the map was hard to see. I actually had to have a map on the computer right next to me to actually see where I was supposed to go since the TV-screen made it hard to see where rooms where connected and such. And my parents TV isn't that small. And it was even zoomed in. 

It was fun, and as noted the voice acting is so chessy, but everyone gotta quote it as some point. A pity that the second half of the game hardly have any cutscenes. Wonder what game I should play now.

Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

The mouse is in the house

I had a Sega Mega Drive as a kid, which my parents got for me when I learned to bike and pretty much never touched a bike after that. I ended up with five games to that console during the years and one was Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse. Only beat it at easy where you only had to go  through 3 worlds and the evil witch gets away with the crystals, but Minnie is saved. My sister and I actually got to the end in normal and fought the end boss, but neither of us could get the winning blow. And then they remade it for modern consoles in 2013 and I had to get it. And I played it... and stopped after getting stuck at the second to last world. The damn licorice dragon irritated me due to the bad 3d controls I never finished it. Until now that is.

So the story is that Mickey and Minnie is walking in a forest when the evil witch Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie to take her youth. Mickey follows her to the Castle of Illusion and search the castle for the seven rainbow crystals to create the rainbow bridge and fight of Mizrabel. Differences from the original is that they made it in 3d and I can see the resemblance of the worlds and such, but they put in situation where you have to platform in a 3d environment which used to be 2d. For example the rolling apple in the first world. Or the boss fights which are all pretty much redesigned. And here is where I really dislike the platforming. The licorice dragon you have to jump from cake to cake in a 3d spectrum. With controls that aren't that precise to my liking. Or I might just suck. But I would have prefered the original game... which you could get as a download if you pre-ordered the game, but not afterwards. Big mistake from my side.

I mean, even the cover looks scarier

The game also added voice acting with the official voices of Mickey and Minnie and it enhances the game a bit. The problem is that the end battle with Mizrabel is scripted. And you can't skip the starting scene so the voice got to grate on me for far to long. And then it's a collectathon with hidden items and gems. Never gonna 100 %  because I'm finished with this game.