Oniken Unstoppable Edition Review

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Oniken 
  • Developer: JoyMasher
  • Publisher: Digerati
  • Switch, PS4, PC, Xbox One

With so many retro-inspired titles out there, terms like “8-bit” or “NES style” have become muddled. Few of them attempt to match the limitations of the era’s hardware, more often using it as a shorthand for games with pixel art or bad CRT filters. Oniken definitely still has that bad CRT filter, but makes a serious effort to recapture the era’s spirit, in both art direction and combat flow. At the same time its enthusiasm for the hardcore philosophy now associated with the era blinds it to problems that undercut the overall experience.

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THE AQUATIC DIARY OF THE LAST HUMAN #3: Disturbed Tranquility

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Developer: YCYJ
  • Publisher: Digerati
  • Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One

I’ve made it out of the seaweed forests. The new chainsaw has allowed me to cut through the thick weeds, and uncover more of the history left behind. There are more of those holograms, and even this far in there are massive screens still running news broadcasts. Did they really discover a truly sustainable energy source while I was gone? 

Maybe not. At the least there seems to have been a lot of infighting here. Numerous journals describe eco-terrorists taking radical action to stop the development of these cities. What could have been so awful that it was worth fighting the last remains of humanity?

Well, maybe I’m starting to get a sense of it myself. While investigating it I stumbled into the den of the largest octopus I’ve seen. The creatures so far have been massive, but this one was beyond comprehension. The suckers on its tentacles alone dwarfed me. The sea has seemed so vast, terrifying in the way it seemed to continue on. This beast is the first being I’ve met that seems large enough to live comfortably in that vastness. 

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Our meeting didn’t go well.

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Desert Child is about the moments between that make the everyday grind tolerable

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Desert Child
  • Developer: Oscar Brittain
  • Publisher: Akupara Games
  • PC (played via Utomik), Switch, Xbox One, PS4

Life in Desert Child was simple when I started. Spend the day racing, sell the extra power cells I didn’t need to make money and fund repairs, and finish the day off with some ramen. It wasn’t a great life, and if you thought the ramen at those hipster shops here were a rip off, wait until you eat this $15 ramen that doesn’t even fill you up. Still it was easygoing, and there wasn’t much to worry about.

Then I got it in my head that I was gonna make it big on Mars, and enter the Grand Prix. So things got complicated.

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SilverFrame is here to let you achieve the Macross Missile Massacre in style

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

Presented entirely in white silhouette, SilverFrame translates the acrobatic combat and wild missile trajectories of anime space operas into streaks of white that cut through the shadow of space.  Each encounter is a dance between missiles, with your craft changing between jet and mech form, easing from and moving into being the leader. 

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The Aquatic Diary of the Last Human #2: Sins of the Fathers

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Developer: YCYJ
  • Publisher: Digerati
  • Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One 

The emergency broadcast system is still operating. Still relaying stories of our great scientific progress, in the middle of our overgrown city ruins. We survived here, that’s clear. Turns out our salvation was in the depths of the Earth, not the depths of the space beyond it. I wish I’d known that before they sent me away. 

Then again, maybe it’s better that I didn’t see it. In between the celebratory broadcasts are hints at the desperation, the rush to find a new home. Maybe our life underground was less the scientific marvel it seems and more a solution for a cornered society. There were tensions here. At least, that’s what the minefield doting these apartment complexes would point to. Maybe they were to keep the giant creatures at bay, but somehow I doubt it. 

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Short Reviews: Sonar Beat

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By: RJ (@rga_02)

  • Sonar Beat
  • Developer - Life Zero
  • Publisher - Life Zero
  • PC & Mobile

It is always exciting to see a new rhythm game concept and more even more exciting to see those games available on the PC. Sonar Beat is a fresh new take on the rhythm genre, but will it rise above the rest or sink to the murky depths?

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The Aquatic Diary of the Last Human #1: Follow the Entrails Home

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Developer: YCYJ
  • Publisher: Digerati
  • Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One

A cloud of viscera surrounds me. It hasn’t been a half hour and I’m swimming in gore. I found a harpoon and set out open up the gate mechanisms trapping me here, and was immediately ambushed by a massive, razor toothed worm. Worms the size of my submarine shot out of its gullet, and it ambushed me from tunnels in the walls. Growling synths shook the air around me. My slow charging, pitiful harpoon couldn’t even cover the space above me so I had to bide my time and slowly cut away at it until it finally gave and disintegrated into a pile of flesh.

I’m in one of the tunnels it carved now. I’m hoping this leads me out of this cavern.

~~~

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Pig Eat Ball is a bewildering and frankly disgusting game of sportsball

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by Amr (@siegarettes)

  • Pig Eat Ball
  • Developer: Mommy’s Best Games
  • Publisher:  Mommy’s Best Games 
  • PC

Bizarre, bewildering and frankly disgusting. That’s how I’d describe pretty much any other game from Mommy’s Best Games. Thankfully, they’re also a lot of fun, Pig Eat Ball included. 

The trademark Mommy’s Best Games originality is here, with out there mechanics and art. Previously, their games all shared a similar rough, overgrown art style. There were grimy textures that felt as if they’d been melted and reconstituted into ridiculously detailed tableaus. 

Pig Eat Ball goes for a more animated vibe, with a lighter hand on textures, more broad strokes of colors and expressive characters. It’s still made up of an absolutely bewildering combination of imagery, but there’s a more confident, less chaotic approach this time. 

Not that the chaos is gone, no, no. 

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