It’s been months since I last made a post due to life and its many various set backs. I’m glad to announce that Abysmal Ninja has released an updated build on Kongregate and even Gamejolt showcasing some new AI and a whole new grenade type. Extreme Exterminators also has a new camera set up making it completely top down giving players a better view of the action. If you didn’t read my last post about Extreme Exterminators, you can check it out here.
This new update is mainly to respond to players that Abysmal Ninja is listening to your feedback and that they want more! Check out the game and take the survey here!
Courtesy of PC Gamer and Bundle Stars, Really Big Sky was a free Steam title during the month of July. I jumped to the chance to get my hands on this indie twin stick game with no idea on what to expect. After playing it, I am certainly glad I got it for free. The game isn’t bad by any means but it doesn’t do much to warrant a purchase especially with all of the other great twin stick games Steam has to offer.
Really Big Sky is all about replaying the same thing but with slight changes. It’s variety of game modes and procedurally generated levels don’t help the monotony of the gameplay as much as Boss Baddie would like it too. However, the game is pretty fun and fast paced. Boss Baddie manages to mix the infinite runner and shoot’em up genre pretty well. There are sections that break up the shooting where you turn your ship around into a drill and go through a planet-like structures to collect points and power ups. The effect is nice and the visuals, in general, are nice. Sometimes the game goes overboard with the effects, like smoke, and make it nearly impossible to see yourself and the enemies around you.
Enemies are pretty generic but the bosses are great. In my short time with the game, I only ran into a couple of them but they were definitely grand. One had you maneuvering inside it and shooting its core while dodging lasers. The screen is also moving ever so slightly adding to the intensity. The music does a good job complimenting the action and atmosphere as well.
The absolute worst part of this game is its narration. You can tell that they used someone with no voice acting experience and the quality of the voice recording is poor (unless it was altered in editing which would be a bad choice). It tries to do what the Stanley Parable and Bastion did for their indie games but fails miserably. I will give the team some effort for trying something different and I’m sure they had a blast recording but it ultimately falls flat.
Really Big Sky is $6 on Steam which isn’t a bad price but you can definitely do better. Some good ideas fail to keep you interested long enough to complete all of the games’ internal objectives and the constant bickering of the narrator will have you turning the game off altogether.
Narco Terror is a twin stick shooter developed by Keen Software. It has a really cool 80’s film aesthetic and does a pretty good job modernizing the arcade style shooter. As I was playing the demo, it reminded me of the old Midway classic, NARC but not quite as over the top. With that being said, this game is still pretty crazy and fun.
The game starts you off with a cutscene of the main character punching the helicopter pilot through the window and seeing it crash as you fell off. The goal is to get to the pilot to see who stole your daughter (from what I could tell.) The story is clearly action film inspired and that’s okay with me. The real selling point is the gameplay. Like most twin sticks, all you have to do is point in the direction you want to shoot people with the right stick and you will shoot. You can switch between a pistol and a shotgun in the demo and their strengths and weaknesses are easily observable. The camera is pretty far out making it easy to see the short range of the shotgun and the noticeably longer ranged pistol shot. I was also able to use a rocket launcher for a limited of time and was able to man a turret that had a cool down which was a little too quick for my tastes. You can also throw grenades that have an unknown trajectory which is frustrating because you never know where they will land, especially since the camera is so far out and the grenade is so small.
Some minor additions to gameplay Narco Terror added were the ability to jump and use melee. Jumping was used to go up small ledges and melee was pretty useless. There was never much of a reason to use melee because you never got crowded in this game. The most enemies on screen would show up when their was a turret where it was most obvious to use that.
The most satisfying part of Narco Terror is how easily things explode in the environment and seeing all of the numbers float above objects and enemies as you shoot them down. It really makes you feel like you are really good at the game. These colorful numbers combined with the 80’s filtered graphics make the game a pleasure to look at and the music and sound effects fit the mood perfectly. The game also has two player, drop-in/drop-out co-op which sounds like a blast too.
I’ll be honest with you, I was really surprised to see this game announced at E3. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light came out almost four years ago and was very fun from what I played. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix seems to be really pushing the Tomb Raider license. To be fair, this is probably the best time to do so considering how popular and strong the IP is.
The biggest change I saw was the inclusion of the two extra characters to finally have four player co-op. From what it looked like, they seem to be generic characters but I’m hoping to see some four player puzzles scattered across the game. Thanks to Pocket-lint, it seems that there will be some dynamic puzzle solving based on how many players are in the game. I’m very interested to see how this works out and how creative these dynamic puzzles could be.
The game also appears to be taking place in Egypt and will have enemies and bosses based off of that mythos. In fact, it appears that there is a new version of Totec that could change the way puzzles are solved. The enhanced graphics to the game really make animations and particles pop and the four player inclusion appears to make the game more chaotic.
The game is said to be coming out soon, which makes me want to play through Guardian of Light now.
PixelJunk Shooter is the fourth installment of the PixelJunk series developed by Q-Games. PixelJunk Shooter rethinks the twin stick shooter in multiple ways. Like Square Off, the game is more of a side scroller but still acts as a twin stick shooter using the right stick to shoot and the left to control your subterranean vehicle. PixelJunk Shooter also contains a lot more puzzles and exploration than shooting actual enemies but still has its fair share of intense moments.
The goal is to collect all the scientists in each small section of the map. You also need to make sure to explore each section to obtain as many diamonds as you can which can be pretty difficult to find. You collect diamonds and scientists with a homing grapple hand and each level will be filled with enemies and various obstacles. Playing through the first area and part of the second, I was able to encounter quite a few interesting puzzles and sections that require a good amount of timing and patience. Whether you are using water to cool down lava and exploding it or getting lava to explode flammable gas, you are going to have to make sure you cleared the area of enemies as well as scientists. Killing enough scientists will end the game and force you to redo the section. Other than cooling down lava, water can be used to cool your vehicle down so you can shoot more homing rockets as well as shoot this rockets almost infinitely. If you become overheated through lava or a missile, you can save yourself by going into water which is really nice but the opportunity to save yourself doesn’t happen often. The ice area will have you melt ice with lava and you can even replace your missiles with a lava shooter. As cool as it is, it is very dangerous if you shoot straight up because you will die immediately. There are sections when it is necessary to take out lava on the ceilings which is kinda tedious.
Thank you TGN!
I was also able to encounter a spider like boss that had multiple stages to it. First you would have to shoot missile launchers on its back and then you had to shoot its face. while it spawns enemies that crawl on land masses that get pretty close to you. The boss took me quite a few tries but I managed to take it down to get to the ice area.
I played the PS Vita version and it travels very well. Sections are small enough to complete on a bus ride and it is free for Playstation Plus members. I plan on playing more of it because I am interested to see how much more variation to the puzzles they have created.
Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami is perhaps one of the greatest games to come out of the Game Maker engine. It combines the twitch reflexes of twin stick games and combines an intense layer of rogue-like stealth. When you die, it’s your fault and the consequences are very minimalistic. Each level takes less than three minutes but it will take you a lot longer than that. The premise is interesting and makes you feel like a gangster with something that resembles a heart. The graphics fit that 80’s Miami Vice look and the soundtrack compliments it perfectly. The limited ammunition for guns make sense and having them has their ups and downs. The game is over the top gory and red pixels never looked so good. That tiny window of peace between missions is like finding a save room in Resident Evil. As soon as you walk out that door it’s go time!
If you haven’t figured out why I love and respect Hotline Miami than you should reread the first paragraph. There is a reason this indie game became a cult classic but there are a few reasons why I really can’t stand this game. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with my lack of skill, but I can’t help but notice details in the game that make me want to range quit because the game feels like it cheated on me. For starters, I understand that this is a top down video game but as I put myself in the role of the player I have to wonder if my mask is obscuring my vision or if I need a pair of glasses because I should totally be able to see that dog or two guys with guns across the hall. I understand that I am supposed to learn the first time, but there are cases where these goons are patrolling and my timing is not always the same. Being able to zoom the camera out would have helped greatly and seeing how the world outside the building is already barren, I already know it isn’t detailed. Perhaps this edition would have made the game too easy and was somewhere on the drawing board but giving the player the option to do so would be nice. Even taking the option out on a hard difficulty would have been nice.
Another thing I hate about this game is the super human AI. If you shoot your gun at someone you better be prepared. Funneling guards through a door works but not always. Locking on is the best way to kill enemies with a gun but the lock on doesn’t work to well with multiple bad guys. Even when you think you have your gun aimed directly at the door way, that AI will probably see you first. I’m sure there are huge stealth fans that love this edition but I don’t care for stealth in games. It’s strange why I even gave Hotline Miami a chance in that regards. Either way, the doesn’t feel human when the rest of the game does. I’d play a different game if I wanted to fight supernatural creature or robots but in a game that aims to feel realistic, this crazy AI breaks my immersion.
With all that being said, I still need to finish my play through of Hotline Miami but boy do I suck at it. I am pretty excited to see what Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number brings to the table in terms of advancing the gameplay. So I ask you, what games do you love but hate with a fiery passion? Think about all those games you play but make you want to throw the controller out the window or smash your keyboard because it’s frustrating or hard.
Full Mojo Rampage takes the twin stick genre and mixes it with the roguelike genre. For those who aren’t familiar with roguelike games, they are essentially procedurally generated levels and contains permanent death. In multiplayer, however, you will get three lives for four players. Over The Top Games puts you in a world of Voodoo where you can go through multiple quests to collect multiple Mojo and voodoo items. As a young apprentice, you will be prepared to die fairly easily and when you do, your quest is over. As unforgiving as this seems, you keep all your gold, medals and experience making your next run through easier.
As you progress through levels and collect mojos, you can combine them to save inventory space and create new, more powerful mojos. You also collect wands that will run out of magic and build up a Rampage meter that has various effects based on the God you choose. The particles on these effects look great and the dark and cartoony asthetic works very well for this game. The soundtrack and sound effects also work to the games favor. The games art is essentially a giant Halloween level from classic platformers like Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario 64. Even though the game is dark and some enemies and bosses are creepy, the game is still very charming.
This twin-stick shooter is simple to pick up but difficult to master. The game is also full of content and the difficulty is fun without being frustrating keeping players engaged. The art style and music is great and the gameplay feels great. Over the Top Games has yet to confirm a PS4 or Xbox One version but lets hope the next gen consoles can get this twin stick shooter that definitely mixes up the genre.
Abysmal Ninja LLC has announced on the Extreme Exterminators Facebook page that they have released the final update on Kongregate. If you haven’t checked out the game yet than you won’t really know how far the game has come from it’s initial Kongregate release in November of 2013. Extreme Exterminators is a twin stick shooter based on the Extreme Exterminators book written by one of the developers of the game. The game will have local 4 player co-op but the Kongregate build only has one player as well as one map. The single horde map contains one starting weapon and one melee and grenade type. The starting weapon is the machine gun type that can be upgraded by picking up one of the three colored crates. The green contains the machine type that increases speed, red contains spread that increases the bullet spread radius and blue contains rifle that increases range and damage dramatically. The game provides players to mix and match the three types to best fit the style of play for players.
Their is only type of melee and grenade and both are used as crowd control. One for close combat and the other for longer range. The grenade button can be held down to change the distance of the throw which is nice and clear with the visual indicator. The melee weapon is not recommended on the larger enemies, like the snail because it will explode in your face. Speaking of enemies, Extreme Exterminators has introduced a lot of variety in enemies. The melee type enemies have various speeds making you act differently when encountering flies and ants. Seeing the snails come in and termites gather up to assault you will keep you on your toes. The speed boost power up helps you escape these insects easily and health power ups spawn frequently enough so you can build up your score.
Abysmal Ninja LLC plans to fix any bugs (no pun intended) that are found but don’t expect to see anything new. Extreme Exterminators is set to get an Alpha release by the end of the month so stick around Twin Stick Diaries for further details as well as the Facebook page and the website.
Coreplay’s, Ion Assault, is a twin stick shooter that forces players to think about their shots as opposed to shooting all willy nilly. The game puts you in small arenas where you shoot down asteroids to complete the level. If this sounds a lot like Asteroids, than you wouldn’t be wrong. The game even controls similar to the classic arcade game which doesn’t translate very well to the dual stick controllers it was made for. It makes it one of the few games where I prefer keyboard and mouse.
Ion Assault is not just a clone of Asteroids. It’s core mechanic is to charge up your ships gun by taking in the multiple particles that surround the map. The more you have, the stronger your gun gets and the more asteroids you destroy, the more particles you get. This makes it easier to destroy the bigger asteroids as well as multiple smaller ones with one shot. Like Asteroids, the more smaller asteroids that are present, the harder it gets. Thats not all, enemies will spawn in the small maps that all have unique designs and attacks that create more chaos in the particle infested world. Power ups that spawn within the asteroids range from useful to “what did that do?” It’s really frustrating collecting a useless power up that may or may not have caused you a life. The game doesn’t do a great job explaining what the power ups do either which is a problem since these top down shooters should be simple.
Ion Assault is a beautiful game and the amount of particles in each level is impressive technically. I really want to know how Coreplay did this without bogging down the frame rate because there are a TON of particles on screen. The game has nice sound effects but the music isn’t very memorable. From the first hour of playing, Ion Assault doesn’t do a whole lot to change its gameplay or aesthetics enough to keep me engaged in the game. It felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again with some more challenge upon reaching the next level. The game is cheap on PC and I would recommend twin stick gamers to give it a shot. You can pick it up along with six other games hereif you have any interest.
The Tomb Raider series was never the most well received franchise but players hold many fond memories of the sexy polygonal explorer. It wasn’t until I played the 2013 reboot that a finally learned to appreciate Lara Croft and her action and puzzle solving franchise. Before the reboot, Lara Croft was given a spin off title that gained great reviews and praised for its new co-op experience and gameplay.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GOL) is a twin stick shooter with puzzle and platforming elements. After being forced to find a magical mirror for some goons, an evil spirit named Xolotl is reborn as well as the warrior of light, Totec. Your goal is to stop the fiend from bringing chaos to the world. As an arcade style shooter, don’t expect a dramatic story like the reboot. What you should expect are some great gameplay mechanics and a great adventure.
My short time with the game, I was grappling on hooks, jumping on spears, shooting undead warriors and solving puzzles. I always felt that puzzle elements in a top down shooter could work great considering most of the Zelda series have the same perspective. Overall, the first couple of puzzles in GOL are relatively interesting and they provide optional puzzle rooms to gain new collectibles and upgrades. GOL proves that platforming in an isometric view can work really well. This is mainly due to the tight controls Crystal Dynamics has created.
GOL uses the Tomb Raider: Underworld engine which looks great with this arcade game when in motion. During the in-game cutscenes, you can see its limitations but the opening 2D cutscene looked fantastic. The music and sound is also very good but the voice acting besides Lara Croft, doesn’t fit the mayan warrior and the Xolotl. I could obviously complain about their ability to speak English but an accent would have been nice.
I’m hoping to play more of the game in the future because it was very fun and holds true to the Tomb Raider series. Even with the new camera perspective and gunplay, the game still feels like a Tomb Raider game and I hope to see Crystal Dynamics bring this style of game back.
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