Category Archives: $1 Dates

$1 Dates: Little Acorns Deluxe

Let it be said that I’ve never let gore get in the way of a good time. I like horror movies and transgressive art. I have a weird sense of humour. One of my first dates with Rick involved making him watch this movie, an ordeal he is still recovering from.

But, I have to say, I was wholly unprepared for experience of watching Rick play Hotline Miami & The Binding of Isaac in the same evening. I will be writing about those games later, but for right now I’m going to focus of the game we decided to play together to help me recover: recent xblig port Little Acorns Deluxe.

In many ways, Little Acorns Deluxe was the perfect antidote to the strange, gory duo of Hotline & Binding. The game is so wholesome it almost hurts. An upgraded port of mobile platformer, Little Acorns, this version includes a cooperative mode, which is part of what had attracted me to the game. Xbox indie games with local multiplayer modes are few and far between and the fact that the gameplay seemed simple enough even for me meant that it was high on my list of games to try for $1 Dates.

In the 2 player mode you play as a squirrel couple, helping each other to collect acorns to survive the winter and wrangle your unruly brood of baby squirrels. Each level is timed, but between me and Rick we didn’t seem to have any trouble getting all the acorns with time to spare. Gameplay is relatively simple, but amps up naturally as you progress through the levels.

We only made it through one season before I had to call it a night, but I have a feeling it’ll be something we’ll be coming back to. The cooperative aspect of the game means that both players can have fun even if they are at different skill levels like me and Rick. I would especially recommend the game to parents who want to introduce their kids to playing games, since the stronger player can carry both players, but the score is cumulative so no one needs to know who did better.

The one aspect of the game that was a little odd, and obviously a result of tacking on the 2 player mode is that if player 2 dies, player 1 can continue playing until the level is complete. But, if player 1 dies, that’s it. You have to start the level over. Not that this was ever a problem for me and Rick, mind you, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Not exactly challenging, but with a good art style and cooperative play, Little Acorns Deluxe is a pretty great value at $1. I might even consider getting it on mobile, too.

$1 Dates: Escape Goat

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Last $1 Date we ended up taking a quick look at puzzle-platformer Gateways after the resounding disappointment that was City Tuesday. While Rick really liked Gateways, he admitted there was something missing, which lead to me suggesting Rick try Indie Gamer Chick’s top game: Escape Goat, quite possibly the epitome of twitch-puzzle-platforming perfection.

Being that I included the word “twitch” in my description of the game mechanics, I let Rick hold the controller for this one, but let is pretty generous on my part because I don’t know if I’d be able to wrench the controller from his grasp, cold and dead or not. When I could I’d jump up and point on the screen when I found a switch or pattern Rick might have missed, but the game’s ultra-tight controls would have been sadly wasted on a spazz-monster like me.

The concept is deceptively simple. You are a goat trapped in a maze and you have to collect keys to escape a series of rooms. However, like most games of this type, it is the design and resolution of the puzzles that make the game truly great. Unlike Gateways, none of the puzzles require Mensa certification in order to complete, but you do feel an overwhelming satisfaction when you do manage to solve one. New mechanics and obstacle types are introduced gradually, meaning that your skills evolve along with the game.

I also really like the fact that you play as a purple goat, instead of a human or something else we’ve seen in a million other games. The graphics are nostalgically lo-fi, but do nothing to take away from the expertly refined mechanics and controls. It truly feels like something Rick would have played on his PC back in the 80′s, but with better controls.

An absolute steal at 80 MSP, Escape Goat is possibly the best XBLIG value available to date.

Not convinced? Why not give this browser based Beta a try?

$1 Dates: City Tuesday & Gateways

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Like many people, City Tuesday was probably the Indie Games Uprising III title I was most looking forward to. You might even remember I featured it in a Game to Watch segment a few weeks ago. So, knowing how rare it is for me to get REALLY excited about a game, Rick and I decided to sit down and give it a try for this week’s $1 Date.

Although I had been warned that it was short, with most players taking between 30 and 60 minutes to complete the full game, I still felt like we would get our monies worth with some good puzzles and some simple “open world platforming” action. Unfortunately, much like The Indie Ocean, Indie Gamer Chick and The Xblig, I couldn’t help feeling a little cheated when all was said and done.

The concept and art style are pure gold. You play as a stick figure man forced to run around town disarming terrorist bombs before they detonate and destroy the oblivious citizens of the city. If you fail, you simply go back to where you started and relive the same five minutes over and over again until you disarm all the bombs. Which sounds pretty cool, except that the “open world” part is only one out of three areas and is easily completed in about 10 minutes if you’ve been paying attention.

The other complaint that I share with The Indie Ocean is that even in the open world section where you have to memorize certain events and disarm bombs in sequence, once you disarm a bomb it stays disarmed for your next playthrough, significantly lowering the difficulty curve and seriously taking away from the whole “open world” concept. While well designed and programmed, the short length and dumbing down of certain elements make City Tuesday more of well executed concept than a standout indie game.

So since that ended with such a thud, Rick and I decided to keep going and try out the highly touted Gateways, a 2D Portal clone that both Indie Gamer Chick and the Xblig raved about (even if no one could finish it).

Since I knew there would be some twitch platforming in this one I let Rick take the reigns, although I tried to help out where I could with certain puzzles. Built with a Metroidvania level and map structure the 8-bit style does a lot to enliven the gameplay since there isn’t much of a story to speak of. However, the flat 2D plane does make using the “Gateway Gun” (read: Portal Gun) sometimes very confusing.

After playing for close to an hour and realizing we’d only started to scratch the surface on the complexity of the puzzles we decided to take a break, but Rick definitely felt like we got our monies worth with this one. We’ll be returning to this one for sure, so check back for an more in-depth review.

$1 Dates: qrth-phyl

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Since it’s Indie Games Uprising time, Rick and I decided to check out the offerings for this week’s $1 Date. At the time we sat down to play, there were only 3 games released: qrth-phyl, Sentensia & Diehard Dungeon. Since I still suck at video games, roguelike punisher Diehard Dungeon was definitely out (although Rick reserves his right to revisit it on his own at a later date). Self-styled “art game” Sentensia had been pretty universally panned. So that left experimental 3D snake-like game qrth-phyl.

As soon as I mentioned it to Rick his eyes lit up. “Snake? I LOVE Snake! I know so much about the history of video games! I’m a REAL gamer, so I love Snake!” (Okay, maybe I added those last two lines, but let’s just agree that they were implied.) The promise of 3D gameplay was more intriguing than anything else, as was the sort of neon-minimalist aesthetic, but since he’s a big fan of Pac-Man Championship Edition I figured he could handle it.

The game starts innocently enough. You control a yellow neon snake thing that passes through a hole in a blue neon grid. From there’s it’s standard Snake action, with you collecting blocks until the white grid in the lower right hand corner is filled. There are obstacles that generate randomly and certain blocks that generate new laser obstacles. However, it’s once that bottom grid is filled that things get really trippy.

See, the game alternates between the standard 2D style snake gameplay and tripped out 3D play inside of a cube. There’s no separate control for the camera in this mode, which can be pretty disorienting and the minimalist, ambient techno score add to the feeling that you’re sort of floating around in the Matrix. I only managed to clear about 3 stages in my playthrough, which was 3 more than Rick figured I would, so I guess I’m not as crappy as we’d assumed.

Despite the addition of obstacles and lasers, the game still manages to have an almost zen-like feel. Not to say that it’s easy. Especially those 3D parts. It’s essentially a score attack game, like the classic game it’s paying homage to, so the lack of leaderboards is rather puzzling. But all in all, I’d say this one was well worth the $1 spent regardless of whether you grew up with Snake or not.

$1 Dates: Pixel Blocked!

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After more than a month of issues with $1 Dates, including dates with myself and skipping last week, Rick and I finally decided to set some time aside sit down and play something fun together. Unfortunately, I still suck at video games, so finding something that we can both have fun with is becoming increasingly more difficult.

My original pick, EvilQuest, garnered favourable reviews from Rick, but the combat was just a little too unforgiving for little ‘ol noob-y me and I spent most of our brief play through throwing the controller across the room or brooding about how much I sucked. Rick, meanwhile, blithely soldier on, confused as to why I looked so cross since he was clearly having a really great time.

After much coddling and soothing of nerves we decided to move on and find something we could both enjoy playing. After rejecting the idea that we should just play joke-y titles that didn’t require any kind of skill (think No Luca No), I finally suggested recent Dream.Build.Play runner up Pixel Blocked!

Which I really enjoyed.

So much that I didn’t really let Rick play and he spent the night watching chess videos on his phone. Anyhoo…

Available for PC and Xbox, Pixel Blocked! is the work of one man dev team Daniel Truong and it’s a brilliant little puzzler with cute retro-style graphics and a peppy, but calming soundtrack by Poddington Bear. Gameplay is deceptively simple with you controlling Mr. Pibuzzle, shooting Standard blocks into grids to fill in the missing pixels. There are a few different types of existing blocks to contend with, each adding a new challenge to the gameplay, namely Perma blocks, Magnetic blocks and Crumble blocks which dissolve when a Standard block hits them. The goal is to complete each shape in the least number of moves possible and your moves include rotating the puzzle and shooting the actual blocks.

I managed to complete Apprentice mode (there are two other modes: Artisan and Master) in about an hour, but I could have easily taken longer if I had put more effort into beating the base number of moves or time allotted each puzzle. Apparently there are also unlockables, including different backgrounds, but I didn’t get far enough or score high enough to see any of them. On a few occasions Rick was able to help me with a particularly tricky puzzle, but it’s definitely more of a one-player game suitable for gamers of all skill levels, including über-noob.

A definite recommend as the score beating aspect alone adds incredible value to the $1 price tag, but ultimately something that is best enjoyed alone.

Check it out for yourself below:

Gamerwife

Video Games, Design, Life

Category Archives: $1 Dates

$1 Dates: Little Acorns Deluxe

$1 Dates: Escape Goat

$1 Dates: City Tuesday & Gateways

$1 Dates: qrth-phyl

$1 Dates: Pixel Blocked!