Little triangle begins with an invasion of giant robots that are dedicated to abduct the colorful characters of this game and one of them, must stop their feet along three worlds divided into 11 phases. The only skill and weapon that he has is the ability to jump. I invite you to jump with me to the picturesque and fun proposal that the guys from Shanghai offer. A real challenge for lovers of platform games awaits.
The symmetry. A concept that for thousands of years has been linked to the human, being in buildings, paintings, through the symbolism of some tribes. It's something magical that you have surely experienced since you were a child when you cut paper, and that little by little you have gone deeply into this beautiful hobby that you have. Many puzzle games give a good account of this, and the most current example that comes to mind right now is The Witness, with specific sections based on symmetry. The title that today occupies me, Samsara, takes the inspiration and the bases of the symmetrical factor, going up a step more, offering some puzzles that seem simple at first sight, but that turn out to be complex and challenging at the most advanced levels. We will see if everyone is prepared for the challenge proposed by the Marked Limited study.
I was looking forward to more games from Matt Thorson whose an independent developer with a great track record. They developed TowerFall Ascension, which left me with a great taste in 2014. But what I didn't imagine, was that Celeste was going to be so well, one of the best platform games of recent years, an authentic delight for lovers of the most challenging jumps, which also makes you fall in love with their images, with their sound and even with their narrative
Duration
The phases, or rather chapters, which are quite long, are divided into dozens of small sections (more than 600 according to their creators), and at the entrance each of them establishes a control point where you reappear when you die . The longer these sections are, the more complicated they are to overcome, and due to their difficulty and playable proposal, this remembers to Super Meat Boy, although Celeste manages not to be so stressful, because of her charming and colorful setting, for her beautiful soundtrack.
Gameplay
The playable proposal of Celeste is extremely simple, and with just three actions, you have to overcome the numerous and varied situations that it proposes: jumping, being able to bounce on the walls; push in the air with a dash, which can be recharged by picking up some crystals or by bouncing on one of the springs and other elements; and grab the walls and other surfaces, being careful because when climbing the character gets tired and falls.
While assimilating the basics of it's gameplay, the first thing you check is that it's control is excellent, extremely accurate and very reliable, the base that has to have a great platform game. The difficulty curve begins in a friendly way, although it doesn't take long to discover that it will be a very difficult game, and in which you will die a lot and have to repeat the same situation many times, something that almost never becomes annoying (and it has a lot of merit), since you reappear immediately to very close. This is obviously very subjective, and if you don't like constant trial and error and repeat the same situation many times, unfortunately Celeste is not your game.
When you have wanted to realize, within a few minutes of starting, you are already immersed in complicated and imaginative sections of platforms, which test everything you have learned so far. Although the first chapter is kind and could almost be considered a great tutorial, in it you already find a multitude of secondary, collectable and secret paths that sting your curiosity, and you want to explore and investigate every nook and cranny of the levels, in which you never know that you you will find, paying attention to every detail.
The great triumph of Celeste is that despite being a game of platforms undoubtedly challenging, it has several layers of depth, and can reach all types of public, as long as it is lover of jumps. This is something that you check very naturally when trying to pick up the strawberries that are spread across the levels, totally optional, and where you find the most difficult moments. But there is much more to collect these collectibles, such as B-side of each chapter, tremendously complicated and only for the most expert, and many other secrets that the game hides.
Celeste is going to be a feast for the speedrunners, and a condemnation for the complete players, since to take control of everything is really complicated, and will play with your patience if you propose it. At the end of the chapters you see the statistics of the times you have died, and the Dark Souls is a joke next to this.
They have even thought of players who are easily frustrated and don't want or can't face a challenge too complicated, since you can activate a curious assistance mode, in which you can change the speed of the action, jump double, infinite resistance or even be invulnerable. A blasphemy for many, but a way to enjoy a very beautiful game and with a great story for others.
Graphics & Design
Celeste is a surprisingly round game, which has enraptured me in all it's aspects.
Yes, including it's graphics, that pixel art style that indies has abused so much in recent years and that many have crossed, but when it is well done, with good taste and care, it can be very nice, as it happens in this game. An excellent use of color, scenes with many details and small effects that make life transmit, and surprisingly expressive characters with very few pixels.
The soundtrack composed by Lena Raine has also enchanted me, with environmental melodies that wrap you up, even relaxing, and that help you not get nervous despite having to repeat a situation more than twenty or thirty times. At the beginning this reminded me a lot of the great work of Disasterpeace in Fez, but then she stands out and surprises with her variety of styles and tones, knowing how to convey the emotions of the protagonist and the urgency of the moment very well in each moment.
Conclusion
Climbing the Celeste mountain has given me some of the best moments i've ever experienced in a platform game. One of those indies that shows that with very little, you can do a lot, at the touch of talent: a perfect gameplay, a waste of good ideas, a great level design, a well written story and a very careful audiovisual section that puts the icing on the cake. If you like the platforms is an essential game, one of the first big surprises of 2018 that has started in an unbeatable way.
Pinstripe, an independent game practically made by a one man studio Thomas Brush. He has been in charge of programming it with the Unity tool, writing the plot, designing all the mechanics of the game, drawing that particular creepy style and composing the music of his work, financed by Kickstarter and now reaches Xbox One, after being released on PC last year. First of all, it's a story, a descent into hell that is played as a platform with slight touches of action and puzzles of having the answer in front of your noses and not hitting the key
Those known as party games are always welcome at friend gathering evenings. That is why the departure of any exponent of this aspect is always well received, although it is a humble independent development. And the appearance of Marooners, a simple game that can still be sent to compete with a stream of other contenders. It's a great project for the Xbox console and for all the friends who wanna play together and just play for fun.
Here we are with another game from the Nightmares From the Deep series from Artifex Mundi. As with the other titles, this is a typical point and click, story adventure game. If you played previously similar games such as, Enigmatis and Grim Legends, the one that stands out above all are the Nightmares from the Deep games.
If you woke up in an unknown place where you could travel to the past, to change some concrete decision of your life, would you do it? Unfortunately, there is nothing similar in the world, although the protagonist of Asemblance seems to have the possibility to do, so thanks to a strange machine, which allows him to travel to certain places and important moments of his life to try to modify some of his actions, trying to avoid a disaster.
They have had to spend many years, but as it was seen, with the arrival of Dragon Ball FighterZ we finally have a game that not only takes care of being at the height of what this legendary series deserves to please the fans of Goku and company, but also is positioned as one of the best fighting titles of recent times and as one of the great releases of this 2018 that has just started.
It was necessary to start this text like this, since, generally, games based on licenses (especially if they are anime or manga) are usually considered as minor products that only seek to take advantage of the pull of the series on which they are based or content only to it's fan base, a very different case to that presented by Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue) with it's new creation, a study that has already demonstrated it's ambition and mastery in the genre countless times.
The graphic adventures are in full form, and part of the fault is the independent scene, with that ability to invent or reanimate genres, as they have done with platform games, puzzles or terror. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, could be considered a graphic adventure, since you have to solve some very traditional puzzles, while you know a story less classical, and more in the style of recent 'narrative adventures' of great success as Dear Esther or Gone Home. The story is there, and you can not change it, but you decide by playing the way you know, the pace and order of events, and the amount of information you receive.
The arrival of Vesta, or new games made in Spain, fills me with satisfaction. More in these moments in which there is not much to scratch, or saddest, great studies in that country, and with larger budgets and staffs, they give blind, with many advantages, but poorly executed in practice, how is the case of Raiders Of The Broken Planet. I refer to him, for having reached the desktop and PC platforms, as is the case with the game I am going to review today. For that reason, when a small, indie studio arises, like FinalBoss Games, with a game so funny, so correct and well finished, also with it's problems but only a few of them, make me very happy, but in general lines, Vesta has my approval
InnerSpace is practically the first feature of the PolyKnight Games studio, a group of university students that today releases their first paid game on Xbox One. We do not talk about anything related to the 1987 film, but a title that aims to bring something different to the genre of flight without wanting to deceive anyone. The purpose of InnerSpace is to relax and enjoy the journey in a game that rewards exploration and is so feared by many search for collectibles.
Although this year, almost all the bets within the genre of air battles will fall on the new proposal of Bandai Namco and it's expected Ace Combat 7, I can't overlook other games like the one i have today, despite being of an independent title. Flying Tiger: Shadows Over China offers everything an arcade aviation fan could wish for, and although it has flaws that I will comment later, in general lines, I found a rewarding and fun experience in the short campaign that will be available (approximately 5 hours ) along with a multiplayer mode where you can fight a duel with your friends.
Limbo was one of the first phenomena of the independent sector of the past generation with Braid, Fez or Super Meat Boy, each with it's personality and gender. In Limbo's case platforms and logic puzzles were mixed to overcome very inspired scenarios, with a characteristic use of silhouettes that was not too common to date. And it was not only the use of black and white, also the blur or humidity in the air, the minimalist history and the use of physics in a 2D world marked an era in digital distribution.
Over time, multiple clones have appeared that have not repeated success. Albert and Otto is the last of them, a distant cousin with a few differences regarding PlayDead's work that doesn't hide his inspiration. Homage, praise or lack of ideas? A bit of everything. If Limbo was a title made with few means, away from production with any "triple A", Albert and Otto in turn seems even more indie than Limbo. It's appreciated, that the same developers mention as a joke on their official page how much they remember said to the title of 2010.
A scroll, a curse, there are many rumors that revolve around him. Despite this, Hero, the protagonist of this story, decides to take him away in his search for great treasures, but without being aware of what this entails. Luckily, he will not be alone in this adventure, but on his way, he will meet Nulan, a descendant of the tribe that created the symmetry scrolls, skillful in the art of magic. And with Haim, a prince affected by a terrible curse.
Developed by the independent company Gamera Interactive and published by Soedesco, I get an adventure of puzzles in which the importance of trial and error, reaches it's maximum exponent but with a unique touch that makes it special. And in Fearful Symmetry & the Cursed Prince, you will find yourself driving the same characters between two parallel dimensions, one in the real world, and the other in a desolate and dark mute.
Mobile video games is something that today are part of our world, it's clear that some people don't like it, but nevertheless, there is a wide range of public that plays that games. Examples of famous games have had many, and always following a kind of fashion, without going further perhaps the first fashion mobile games (smartphone) was Angry Birds, and followed by other games such as Candy Crush and Clash Royale. However as it happens in PC games and consoles, there are great gems that have gone more or less unnoticed, such as the magnificent Monument Valley, in addition, some of these games have been released to console as was the case of the aforementioned Angry Birds.
Unfortunately, there are games that i don't understand why they decide to port to console and Future War Reborn is one of them.
We already have between us, the third and last episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Hell is empty. Truths will be revealed, action and intensity will reach their climax and the plots will close. Are you ready to say goodbye to the story of Chloe and Rachel?
Four months after the story began with the release of the first chapter of Before the Storm: Awake, at the end of August, and having waited two months after playing the middle episode: Brave New World, we finally reach the conclusion of Before the Storm , the fascinating story of Chloe and Rachel, that serves as a piece to complete the puzzle of Life is Strange, explaining the facts prior to the storm and the true story of Rachel Amber, in addition to Chloe's past and all the steps that led her to be the rebel of blue hair and tattoos that you met almost three years ago in the game developed by Dontnod Entertainment
The genre of ships is one of the oldest in the world of video games, however new and innovative proposals always emerge in search of a new space in the heart among the followers of this type of games. That's the case with Boiling Bolt, a different shmup, and even with a deep story that I'm not so used to in this category. Now, not everything is history, but it has to gather a compendium of things to be effective, and not be overshadowed by other aspects such as its gameplay, this aspect being the most innovative.
If there is a study in which the graphic adventures don't disappear, and the formula of the point & click exploits better, this is Artifex Mundi. With a dozen titles behind him in less than three years, he has made a considerable gap in the hearts of fans of this genre.
In each of their works they have experimented and played with different mechanics that they already implemented with their first delivery, thus obtaining variable results. However, and as much as i appreciate the study, i have no choice but to be honest and anticipate that this Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery, has the dubious privilege of being the most bland and the least innovative, of all those who i have analyzed until the date of this seal that such remarkable joys have given me.
Hello Neighbor appeared on my radar a few months ago, when his pc output, resulted in a whole stream of videos from popular Youtubers, that managed to give him some notoriety. His departure on Xbox One was delayed until Christmas and today, i can analyze this debut of the Russian studio Dynamic Pixels, which lead to unsuspected points the fabulous concept of nuisance to the neighbor.
At this point, talking about a graphic adventure of the German Daedalic Entertainment, like Chaos in Deponia, is talking about quality. Many titles have already passed since their mythical first games, including the highly acclaimed The Whispered World. Undoubtedly, for this company, the graphic adventure genre is still a good source of income and a success as Ron Gilbert, the father of Monkey Island, already mentioned a few months ago, about another game with the same gameplay as The Walking Dead of Telltale Games.
