This is it! It’s nearly over! Yes, today we clear Nightmare mode on Project Zero for the first time.
The last night in the game was actually a whole lot shorter than I remembered it being, but at least there’s only one wandering ghost to pick up on our ongoing quest to clean up the ghost list.
Hit the jump to see how the buildup and the dramatic conclusion to Miku’s story went this time around…
Continue reading New Game Plus: Nightmare Finale – Project Zero #11
An unusual and very pretty shoot ’em up today, from the mind of the man who gave us Spindizzy.
Quartz is a game that combines free-roaming, vaguely Asteroids-esque sequences with more traditional forced scrolling stages in a variety of different directions. It’s simple but effective… and damned addictive.
It’s also a great example of a popular graphical style at the time — raytracing, or at the very least, a pixel art approximation of raytracing. Today, graphics cards are just starting to get into real-time raytracing for the latest “new thing” in graphical fidelity, but back in the ST era, prerendered raytraced graphical assets were quite commonly used as a means of making sprites look “3D” without going full-on polygonal.
Whether it’s “real” raytracing or not doesn’t really matter at the end of the day… what does matter is that this is a gorgeous game that’s a ton of fun to play!
There’s a lot of hoo-hah about “representation” in games right now from various sources, tending to lead to arguments between people who don’t think it matters and people who think it is more important than absolutely anything in the whole wide world.
For the most part, I tend to stay out of these discussions because I have no particularly strong feelings one way or the other and I’m not going to just sit here and hollowly say “the right thing” for Internet brownie points. For me, it’s always cool to see characters who are a bit “different from the norm” in various ways, yes, but it’s not something I specifically find myself seeking out. Unless you count generally favouring Japanese games with female protagonists or at least leading cast members, in which case… uh… well, look at the stuff I’ve covered on this site over the course of the last few years. Hmm, maybe I care about it more than I think.
Anyway, all that said, it’s nice when you feel some sort of connection to a character depicted in a piece of media. Even if it’s just in one small way…
Today on Warriors Wednesday, it brings me great pleasure to introduce you to my cat Meg, who thought she would participate in the beginning of this video.
After that, we get thoroughly acquainted with the lovely Lady Nō, who is primed and ready to get you all hot under the collar before ruthlessly killing you.
Hit the jump to see how today’s mission went, and how Lady Nō deals with a bad case of how do you like my halberds?
Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Yes, We Have No Bananas – Warriors Orochi #22
Those of you who have been following my work for a while may recall a good few years back now I was rather enthusiastic about a game called Magical Diary: Horse Hall.
This unusual game, developed by Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar, blended elements of visual novel, life sim and first-person dungeon crawler to create something very interesting indeed — and something that was clearly intended to be the start of a series.
That was back in 2012. Now, in 2019, we’re finally getting a follow-up — so let’s take a first look at what the sequel, Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, has to offer, and how Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar will be making use of crowdfunding to realise their goals.
Continue reading Magical Diary: Wolf Hall – A Wolf in Wizard’s Clothing
This one was a new one on me until quite recently. I present to you Vanguard, an unusual shoot ’em up originally released by SNK in the arcades.
Vanguard is unusual because it’s not just being one thing, unlike a lot of shoot ’em ups at the time. Instead, it shifts between horizontal, vertical and diagonal scrolling at various points in the levels, and even has some rudimentary boss fights. It’s also quite unusual to find a game of this era with a proper “continue” system, particularly in its home incarnations.
While its visuals may not look like much these days, it’s a great shoot ’em up that is still worth revisiting today — and there’s an Atari 2600 version too, for those who prefer to console it up.
Hello! Welcome back to the first episode of The MoeGamer Podcast for 2019, featuring my good self and my good friend Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels.
The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You can subscribe to my channel on YouTube to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos; you can follow on Soundcloud for the audio-only version of the podcast; you can subscribe via RSS to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you can subscribe via iTunes. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!
Or you can hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.
Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 16 – Welcome to 2019!
Having cleared the pre-season training and the first episode of exciting new TV show Split/Second, it’s now onto the next installment.
This episode, Splashdown, introduces the Air Strike event type. This involves helicopters firing missiles at you while you’re just minding your own business trying to drive in circles around an abandoned city.
It’s as intense and ridiculous as it sounds. Hit the jump to see how things went…
Continue reading Sunday Driving: Splashdown – Split/Second #2
Well, we come to the end of another week, and a monumentally unexciting one at that.
Having endured the pre-Christmas doldrums, it’s now time to get suitably discontent in the run-up to February, which my family has long regarded as the most depressing month in the whole year for some unscientific, almost certainly superstitious reason.
Still, at least there are some cool games on the way… and the things I’ve been covering here on MoeGamer have been making me happy, so… well, there’s that! Hit the jump to see what you might have missed this week.
How do you make Asteroids better? Add the word “Deluxe” to its name, obviously.
Okay, 1980’s Asteroids Deluxe adds a bit more to the basic Asteroids formula than that, but it’s still very much recognisable. The whole experience is a bit smoother than the original, the presentation is sharper and cleaner (and blue!) and there are some additional enemies to deal with. But you’re still rotating and firing and dodging. And dying. Dying a lot.
I’m still no good at Asteroids, Deluxe or otherwise, but I actually enjoy it a lot more today than I did back when it was “current”. It’s a game that’s held up extremely well, and it’s a pleasure to revisit both of its most famous incarnations in the Atari Flashback Classics collection for Switch.
