Recent reviews by plaidtopia

Best puzzle game in years.

I'm not great at shmups, but, for maybe the first time in the genre, that wasn't a prequisite for enjoying Jamestown. Perhaps even more unlikely was that a good portion of my enjoyment was due to a shmup's story: Jamestown combines colonial American history with spaceships, Mars, and aliens, then revels in the goofiness of it all. The result, thankfully, isn't B-movie schlock, but rather a charming, cartoonish world where I can feel at home shooting a ton of things and (mostly) avoiding a never-ending stream of bullets. And to that end, Jamestown is also extremely solid. The campaign is a fairly short experience, but there is a real draw to mastering levels on multiple difficulties and -- if you're skillful enough (I wasn't) -- working your way through the myriad one-life, scenario-driven challenge levels.

Giving a player control over magical elements is nothing new, but the way Magicka does it is. Assigning the elements to individual keys is, at first overwhelming, but results in a freedom and exploration that is rarely matched in other games. Players stick with a few tried-and-true combinations to begin with before slowly developing mastery through experimentation -- often in hilarious and unexpected ways. Add in co-op (a must!) and you've got the videogame equivalent of a chemistry set: Freeze the ogre charging at you or send a meteor hurtling down at your friend's head -- the choice (or accident) is yours. On top of all this, there's a great sense of humor throughout and maybe the best difficulty curve I've experienced. Love it and can't wait to dive into the DLC.

This is about as close as any game has come to matching Super Meat Boy's pairing of insane platforming challenges, bizarre "story," and pulse-heightening electronic tunes. And while some of the tricks the game pulls out of its hat are more inventive than some parts of Meat Boy, it can't really match the variety or depth. It's not nearly as long of an experience, nor as memorable and rewarding, but I'll be damned if you don't get that same fist-pumping rush from accomplishing something you thought wasn't humanly possible just 5 minutes and 100 quick deaths ago.

Don't let the Call of Juarez name fool you: This is a very strong arcade-shooter with a unique style. Unlike other games in the series, the mechanics here are spot-on and satisfying -- and improved with layering on a solid scoring and combo system, and a rewarding, divergent upgrade path. Even better, though, is how the game tells its tale as a series of remembered half-truths. Hyperbole, corrections, misdirections, and other storytelling tricks are weaved through the gameplay in a way that, while not maybe groundbreaking, certainly keeps the action from getting overly predictable or repetitive. Best of all, a western game finally gets duels right!

I wanted to love you so much, La Mulana -- I really did. You have old Castlevania or Metroid sensibilities! A retro aesthetic with a Spelunky paint job! A sprawling world to discover! Awesome tunes! Bitingly masochistic difficulty! Y'know -- all the things I love!

But then you decide today's controls aren't archaic enough. And that basic gameplay information should be left up to player-created FAQs. And that "puzzle" really means "write down every obscure thing you see and read because it may be important three hours later. Or not." And that, when I finally, mercifully unblock myself and solve said puzzle, I shouldn't receive any indication of what change it affected in your game world. And that I should go on another half-hour walking tour of your huge world and its constantly-respawning monsters to find the one door that has now opened. And that, hey, now I'm low on health because of this very sojourn, so I guess I'll go back to the one-and-only god-forsaken healing spot in the game and sit still for a minute or two while I slowly heal because WHY CAN'T THIS BE A FUNCTION OF THE SAVE SPOTS, AGAIN?!

There's old-school charm and then there's hiding bad game design behind "nostalgia." I rarely abandon games, but I'll make an exception for you, La Mulana.