Rayark has made a name for themselves in the rhythm game space. They’ve carved their space with games like VOEZ and Deemo on mobile and Vita, eventually bringing both to the Switch in updated, comprehensive packages that were even updated to add button support to interfaces intended for touchscreens. Cytus Alpha is the latest in this series, bringing Cytus’ complete tracklist and story into one game, alongside some guest tracks from the DJ Max series.
A brand new Mega Drive title, Tanzer rocks an Amiga style aesthetic, calling back to games like Shadow of the Beast with its tracker style soundtrack and detailed landscapes. If I’m honest, that had me skeptical, as too often games from the Amiga school of design are easier to appreciate for their mood and artistry than for the experience of playing them. Publisher and developer Mega Cat Studios has also put out several titles for retro hardware before, which I often found similarly easier to appreciate as aesthetic exercises. But when they reached out with a chance to review Tanzer, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see what it’s like to play a new Mega Drive cartridge in 2019.
Jupiter & Mars reads like a cautionary tale, not only about the environmental damage the story concerns itself with, but about the considerations we need to give when telling stories within games. Jupiter & Mars often talks over itself. In blunt terms, it’s too much of a videogame for its own good. Its clumsy use of game mechanics and tropes distracts from its environments and iconography, dulling the tools for visual storytelling it comes prepared with.
Jupiter & Mars has a strong central premise. The story of two dolphins making their way through the ruins of humanity, rescuing sealife from the damage inflicted upon the sea. Seeing images of our everyday lives submerged underwater comes preloaded with pathos, and provides a refreshing change from our usual modern apocalypses, which often oscillate between arid deserts and overgrowth.
Venture Kid is a Mega Man inspired platformer. Retro style action games aren’t exactly the rarity they used to be, and you’ve absolutely played a game in this style already. Thankfully, Venture Kid at least nails the core action, with responsive controls that provide the kind of strong feedback that other retro games lack, which counterbalances its more strict damage requirements. Unfortunately, Venture Kid also chops of the framework of the series it takes inspiration from, and puts the pieces back together in a form that doesn’t make sense.
Up until its ending, I was never sure where Falcon Age was going. From the colonialist labor camp it opens on, until the final moments where you’re asked to choose between two paths, I never understood where my place in Falcon Age was. Its anti-colonialist message rings clear, and while it’s refreshing to see such a clear political stance, it never digs meaningfully into the effects or consequences, or finds a way to explore them within its framework.
Let me be clear here–its explicit enumeration of the crimes of colonialism and rejection of the colonial ideology is admirable and something I’d like to see other developers follow–my problems with Falcon Age are where it goes with ideas, which never achieve anything as coherent as its stated message. It aims to tell a story of bond between a falcon trainer and her falcon, resistance and its toll, and keeping your culture alive against a force that attempts to erase it, but it constantly distracts from its message through the act of play.
Stripped down to its movement and topography, Feather aims to bring joy through flight and freeform exploration. No objectives or progression, only the island and your wings.
It works–mostly. Movement gives off a sense of lightness, with climbing and diving between altitudes coming easily, and directional reversals at a button’s touch. Whether skimming the surface of the ocean or the clouds Feather makes the breeze at your wings a tangible presence. And while movement in itself is one of the easy joys of games, without context it’s difficult to keep it compelling for long.
Overwhelm’s pitch nearly convinced me that it would be for me. An action-horror platformer where enemies get new abilities each time you beat a boss. It flips the usual action game dynamic and pushes back harder each time you take a step towards beating it. On top of that you’re only given three lives to complete a boss before you start all over. And you can only take a single hit.
