One-Shots

Lily’s Day Off: The Visual Novel, Condensed

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If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve indulged in a visual novel or two in your time. Perhaps they’re even a primary form of entertainment for you.

Those of you who have explored the medium to some extent have doubtless discovered that there isn’t really any such thing as a “typical” visual novel — some, like Dharker Studio’s Negligee, are effectively short stories designed to be enjoyed over the course of no more than a couple of hours, even if they have multiple endings or routes. Others, like the wonderful Grisaia and Fate/stay night, can take a hundred hours or more to see through to completion.

Sometimes, you want the experience of a visual novel’s approach to interactive multimedia storytelling without having to devote a significant proportion of your life to enjoying it. Sometimes you want something that will just entertain you for an evening but still give you the sense that you’ve “completed” something. Sometimes a game like Lily’s Day Off is exactly what the doctor ordered.

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Rottytops

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I’m not sure what it is about characters that… aren’t quite human, but there’s something incredibly appealing about them.

I’m not the only person to feel this way, either, as evidenced by the popularity of everything from catgirls (a relatively tame variant on humanity) to the full-on monstergirls found in something like the Monster Musume anime and its ilk.

Zombies aren’t traditionally something thought of as particularly sexy… but there have been a few successful attempts to combine physical attractiveness with rotting flesh over the years. One of these can be found in the Shantae series in the form of Rottytops, a recurring character who has been present since the first game.

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Essentials, Game Boy

Game Boy Essentials: Mario Tennis

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With the latest installment in the Mario Tennis series coming soon to Nintendo Switch at the time of writing, I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit one of my favourite versions.

It’s not often that a handheld version of a game can honestly claim to be superior to its counterpart on TV-based consoles — and this was something that occurred even less frequently back in the days where the 8-bit Game Boy Color and the 64-bit Nintendo 64 coexisted happily alongside one another. But 2000’s Mario Tennis pulled it off with a spectacularly ambitious, interesting and ballsy handheld version that, for solo play at least, ran rings around its big brother.

It achieved this primarily by not even attempting to be a “port” of the rather multiplayer-centric N64 version — not that this would have been possible given the disparity in technological capabilities between the two platforms — but instead providing a unique, solo-focused experience. One that is still worth playing today — and which Mario Tennis Aces’ single-player Adventure Mode has undoubtedly taken some inspiration from.

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Essentials, Game Boy

Game Boy Essentials: Game Boy Gallery

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Nintendo has always been good at handheld games — even long before its Game Boy and subsequent platforms were a thing.

Those of you as old as me will doubtless remember the Game & Watch series, a range of 60 handheld electronic LCD games created by Nintendo and released between 1980 and 1991. These dinky little devices perfectly encapsulated what makes a “good handheld game” — something that is easy to learn but tough to master, and which you can either while away a few minutes with or engross yourself in for several hours thanks to their inherently addictive, rewarding quality.

The Game & Watch series was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who later went on to design 1989’s astronomically popular Game Boy. It’s only appropriate, then, that a number of the games that really kickstarted Nintendo’s efforts in the handheld space went on to get their own adaptations on that platform, beginning with the Europe-only release of Game Boy Gallery in 1995.

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Announcements

MoeGamerTV: MoeGamer on YouTube!

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Did you know MoeGamer has a YouTube channel? You can find it (and subscribe) here!

Over on the channel, you’ll find video versions of many MoeGamer articles, Let’s Plays of games — including some I haven’t written about here yet — as well as the MoeGamer Podcast.

If you have a moment to support the channel, please drop by, watch a few videos and leave some likes and comments. And if you’d like to stay up to date with my work on YouTube, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.

Hit the jump for some recent videos.

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Cover Games, Shantae

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Jumping Generations

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cropped-header2-2052908This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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An interesting aspect of the Shantae series is how its presentation and execution has evolved over time.

While the first game, being released in the twilight years of the 8-bit Game Boy Color, represented the diminutive handheld being pushed to its absolute limits, the two subsequent installments in particular made a specific effort to be “modern retro” titles — games that emulated experiences from systems of the past while providing modern-day conveniences.

Risky’s Revenge, which we’re concerned with today, very much has its sights set on the 16-bit era. And it explores this concept with a clear knowledge and understanding of not only the classic 16-bit consoles, but also the earlier 16-bit home computers.

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Risky Boots

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The Shantae series is effortlessly and consistently sexy.

We’ve already talked about how the titular protagonist of the series exemplifies this perfectly, but the same is also true of a number of other characters throughout — most notably primary antagonist Risky Boots. Hell, even that name is kinda hot.

Risky is also a great example of how the Shantae series as a whole populates its world with interestingly flawed characters rather than one-dimensional heroes and villains — and as such elevates herself from simply “sexy villain” to “beloved character” in her own right.

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Essentials

Mega Drive Essentials: ToeJam and Earl

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Ah, the ’90s. The era of attitude. Or, more specifically, the era of everyone spontaneously and inexplicably wishing they were Californian.

Video games certainly weren’t exempt from this trend at all, though various different titles from the era took their attitude towards, uh, “‘tude” more seriously than others.

One noteworthy game from the early ’90s that simultaneously acknowledged the popularity of California-style attitude as well as poking fun at the inherent absurdity of it all — particularly the disconnect between your stereotypical video game nerd and what one would think of as a “cool dude” — was Johnson Voorsanger Productions’ ToeJam & Earl, published by Sega for the Mega Drive in 1991.

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Essentials, Mega Drive, Puzzlers

Puzzler Essentials: Columns

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A lot of games that really stand the test of time are based on a very simple idea.

This is particularly apparent in the puzzle game genre, which typically involves little more than matching shapes and colours in one form or another. And indeed said genre is home to some absolutely timeless classics that are still getting rereleases and reimaginings today.

One puzzler from the early days of gaming that often seems to get forgotten, however, is Sega’s Columns — and that’s a bit of a shame, because it’s an interesting twist on the usual falling block puzzle format.

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Announcements

Pete Plays Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God

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Hi folks, just a quickie to announce that from this point onwards, you can expect (hopefully) regular Let’s Play videos on Saturdays and Sundays.

This is in addition to MoeGamer’s midweek content, which I’m aiming to support with video versions of articles as you may have seen me experimenting with throughout the latter half of this week.

Head on over to my YouTube page to subscribe now, and hit the jump to check out the first two episodes of Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God, a game I’ve been meaning to check out for ages — and which has recently had an excellent PC port!

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The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.