Grissallia<p>December 7, 2023 - Day 341 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 360</p><p>Game: Wandersong</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Sep 28, 2018<br>Installation Date: May 14, 2019<br>Unplayed: 1668d (4y6m23d)<br>Playtime: 29m</p><p>Wandersong is a 2D music-themed rhythm adventure platformer.</p><p>As with so many other platformers, the game opens with your character standing defenceless on the left hand side of the screen, and setting out on their adventure.</p><p>The game world is rendered in a brightly-coloured papercut stop-motion animation style. It was here that I ran into my first problems with the game.</p><p>It's definitely a controller-based game, but the UI for menus is so frustrating that I resorted to keyboard and mouse - and STILL had problems.</p><p>I lost close to ten minutes (which I subtracted from the playtime to get the total above) just wrestling with the options UI and trying to get it to commit the resolution I'd chosen.</p><p>With game actually running at a reasonable resolution, I set off to the right, to embrace my destiny. A sword! Every adventurer needs a sword!</p><p>This is when I encountered what felt like the weirdest weapon interaction I've ever encountered: to use the sword you select a direction for the sword to point with the D-Pad (or left stick, but I recommend D-pad) and then move towards the target.</p><p>Enter battle... and immediately lose your sword forever as it flies out of your hands and plummets offscreen.</p><p>As it turns out, this is not a fighting platformer, it's a musical platformer.</p><p>After some further scene setting, you're into the game proper.</p><p>Fights in the game are effectively a complicated version of the memory game "Simon", with a C major scale's 8 notes instead of Simon's 4.</p><p>As an example, an early fight with a ghost involves replicating the notes and patterns that the non-vocal ghost is making. This is where using the d-pad is more effective than trying to use the left stick. You need to hit the right notes in the right order, and it's too easy to slide through a wrong note with the analog stick, meaning you need to start the pattern again.</p><p>For the most part, it's effective, and the music is quite lovely, but it's definitely a game I'm going to need to be in the mood for.</p><p>Part of the reason for that is that the bugginess of the UI extends into the game itself, with the game intermittently pixelating as if dropping to low resolution, and intermittent visual glitches.</p><p>During the battles with a ghost, the screen colours invert, and the soundtrack changes accordingly, and usually switches back after winning the battle.</p><p>However, after one battle, the colours and soundtrack started inverting and reverting non-stop, making the game virtually unplayable.</p><p>Unfortunately, the general bugginess took the edge off a game I quite enjoy otherwise, leaving Wandersong at:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Wandersong" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Wandersong</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/2D" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>2D</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SidewaysScroller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SidewaysScroller</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Platformer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Platformer</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Adventure" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Adventure</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
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Grissallia<p>November 23, 2023 - Day 327 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 346</p><p>Game: Soundfall</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: May 12, 2022<br>Installation Date: Nov 11, 2023<br>Unplayed: 12d<br>Playtime: 16m</p><p>Soundfall is part rhythm-based top-down dungeon-crawler, part looter-shooter.</p><p>So far, one level in, this musical odyssey feels like a dungeon-crawler in name only. So far the dungeons are brightly-coloured floating islands, adorned with equalizer level bars rising and falling in time with the ear-wormish pop soundtrack.</p><p>Existing in a third space between Hi-Fi Rush and Metal Hellsinger, this is an interesting take on a rhythm game, and the only reason I'm writing a review instead of continuing to play is that it's been a tough day, and I can barely keep my eyes open.</p><p>The only issue I have with the game is that in spite of having previously needed to calibrate my video and audio latency for other rhythm games, the calibration tool in Soundfall insists my calibration requirements for both are 0ms.</p><p>I think it's this that left me feeling like I was constantly slightly off-beat, just enough that it didn't feel quite right.</p><p>Even so, Soundfall is already fun, and I'll happily say it's: </p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Soundfall" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Soundfall</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/TopDown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TopDown</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DungeonCrawler" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DungeonCrawler</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/LooterShooter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LooterShooter</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>November 15, 2023 - Day 319 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 338</p><p>Game: BPM: Bullets Per Minute</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Sep 16, 2020<br>Installation Date: Nov 15, 2023<br>Unplayed: 0d <br>Playtime: 16m</p><p>BPM: Bullets Per Minutes is a rhythm-based FPS roguelike. I discovered BPM when I was reading about Metal Hellsinger, and added it to my wishlist.</p><p>Joke was on me. Turns out I already owned it.</p><p>After the 250Mbps fibre was installed today, I went looking through my unredeemed Steam keys list, and spotted BPM. "Ooooh! I'll install that!"</p><p>While this has the same basic concept as Metal Hellsinger, it plays very differently.</p><p>Instead of raiding hell, you're a Valkyrie raiding randomly generated Viking-esque dungeons, rendered in an eyewatering, almost monochromatic colour palette.</p><p>You also absolutely MUST fire on the beat, or the gun just doesn't fire. Even on easy mode, the mobs hit hard. Each hit does 25% damage.</p><p>You walk into a darkened room that may or may not have a wild number of mobs in it, and you run around trying to make out where you're going, and not get hit.</p><p>If you're unlucky, there's a boss in the room, who might completely blind you for a moment... and then you're dead. </p><p>Ultimately, it was the graphics that killed it for me. I would probably persevere if I could easily make out what I'm shooting at against the backgrounds, but it just becomes too much work, particularly when there are a lot of mobs on screen.</p><p>I really wanted to like this game, but unfortunately, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is another:</p><p>1: Nope</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/BPM" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BPM</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BulletsPerMinute" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BulletsPerMinute</span></a><br><a href="https://aus.social/tags/FirstPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FirstPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FPS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FPS</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Roguelike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Roguelike</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a><br><a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>October 26, 2023 - Day 299 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 318</p><p>Game: Dub Dash</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Feb 17, 2016<br>Installation Date: Oct 21, 2023<br>Unplayed: 5d<br>Playtime: 27m</p><p>Dub Dash is a dubstep-themed rhythm arcade game.</p><p>Using a couple of buttons, you need to time your button-presses just right to dodge the obstacles that pop up in front of you, in time with the dubstep soundtrack.</p><p>I have a bit of a thing for rhythm games, but I struggle a bit with games where I need to memorise an exact set of moves and repeat them perfectly. This is a combination of both.</p><p>The first level is a top-down level where you're a rolling wheel in a trench dodging the obstacles popping out of the side-walls of the trench. Kind of like the Star Wars trench run meets Skrillex.</p><p>The thing I found mildly irritating is that most of the required moves are on the beat, and then suddenly one that's off-beat, and not necessarily in a way that makes sense.</p><p>I'd feel like I was in the groove, and suddenly I'd smash into an obstacle that was on the third beat. I eventually beat the first level, but this is definitely one of those "I might play it again if the mood strikes me" games.</p><p>Dub Dash is: </p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/DubDash" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DubDash</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Arcade" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Arcade</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>October 19, 2023 - Day 292 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 311</p><p>Game: Metal: Hellsinger</p><p>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Sep 15, 2022<br>Installation Date: Oct 19, 2023<br>Unplayed: 0d<br>Playtime: 25m</p><p>Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm-based FPS. The rhythm in question is heavy metal. Very heavy metal.</p><p>This is the second of the October Humble Choice Bundle games, and the second game that I'd looked at before and decided "Ah... no."</p><p>It's nothing to do with being an FPS, or a fundie* aversion to the setting, or being a rhythm game.</p><p>It was the soundtrack, which seemed to me more like death metal than heavy metal, but I'm old.</p><p>In any case, you're more likely to find me listening to Sara Bareilles than Slayer. Dire Straits rather than Dio. Counting Crows, not Cannibal Corpse.</p><p>You get the idea.</p><p>The idea of a game with a soundtrack featuring the lead singers from bands like System of a Down, Dark Tranquillity, Trivium, and Lamb of God is not my idea of a good time.</p><p>I found Nine Inch Nails in Quake was a lot to deal with.</p><p>So... I was wrong. Killing mobs in hell, slashing or firing on the beat of screaming thrashing metal is an intense but incredibly fun time.</p><p>It's not a game I'm going to play to unwind, by any means, and I can't understand a single word they're singing (which is probably for the best), but Metal: Hellsinger is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/MetalHellsinger" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MetalHellsinger</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FirstPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FirstPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/FPS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FPS</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HeavyMetal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HeavyMetal</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HumbleChoice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HumbleChoice</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p><p>*actually, the whole hell theme does still make me feel a little uneasy. Not sure I'll ever shake that.</p>
Grissallia<p>May 8, 2023 - Day 128 - NewPlay Bonus Review<br>Total NewPlays: 144</p><p>Game: AVICII Invector<br>Platform: Steam<br>Release Date: Dec 11, 2019<br>Library Date: Oct 25, 2020<br>Unplayed: 925d (2y6m13d)<br>Playtime: 30m</p><p>AVICII Invector is a rhythm game. You have a ship, you have to steer in through a futuristic course and hit the right buttons at the right times to the rhythm of Avicii songs, and it helps to be a fan of Avicii, because you're going to be hearing a LOT of Avicii.</p><p>There's not a lot to say here. It's not an overly complex idea, it just gets very complicated very quickly at higher levels.</p><p>Unfortunately, if you're someone with fine motor control & coordination issues, anything more than "Beginner" mode quickly becomes frustrating. </p><p>A lot time in game is spent in triangular tunnels; in Beginner mode, there's only the A button, left stick to to change walls, left or right as required, and the left bumper(!) to hit light-up track lines.</p><p>The use of the bumper left me feeling like I was going to drop the controller, so that was bit off-putting.</p><p>In easy mode, the game adds the X button. The on-screen icon is a different colour, but the same SHAPE as the wall-change icon. I kept registering it as "move left" and missing the presses.</p><p>Even so, I don't mind a rhythm game to kill time here and there, so AVICII Invector is:</p><p>3: OK</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Avicii" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Avicii</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/AviciiInvector" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AviciiInvector</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MastodonGaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastodonGaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
Grissallia<p>Feb 4, 2023 - Day 35 - NewPlay Review<br>Total NewPlays: 42</p><p>Game: Hi-Fi RUSH<br>Platform: Xbox Game Pass PC<br>Release Date: Jan 25, 2023<br>Library Date: Jan 28, 2023<br>Unplayed: 7 days<br>Playtime: 55m</p><p>Hi-Fi RUSH was announced unexpectedly by Bethesda during the Xbox Developer Day on January 25th.</p><p>Apparently developed in parallel with Ghostwire: Tokyo (which I love, (5: Excellent)), and given my history with Bethesda games, given it was immediately available with Game Pass, installing it was a no-brainer.</p><p>I got stuck into it this morning, and it was every bit as fun as the rumours suggested. It's a third-person rhythm action game, in which your attacks are performed in sync with the music, and if you land the attack on the beat, you do bonus damage.</p><p>However, playing for more than 30 minutes, I suddenly encountered an unexpected 2D platform level, which yanked me out of the zone, and left me trying to time jumps just right, with the unexpected context switch.</p><p>I like the storyline so far, loving the music, and without that jarring context change, this would have been excellent. Time will tell if I can adjust to the platform levels, or if I need to play with a controller, but it's still a great game, and free if you have a Xbox Game Pass subscription.</p><p>Hi-Fi RUSH is:</p><p>4: Good</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/HiFiRUSH" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HiFiRUSH</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ThirdPerson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ThirdPerson</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Rhythm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rhythm</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Gaming" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gaming</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365ONG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365ONG</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Project365" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Project365</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/NewPlay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NewPlay</span></a></p>
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