Pokemon Sun and Moon

This has been something I’ve wanted to review for quite a while but I’ve been so hooked on Pokemon Moon that all my free time essentially went into that.

I will admit I was very skeptical of the new Alola versions of the pokemon that I knew and loved. Why change something if it’s already very beloved by many and perfect? Seeing Vulpix being turned into an Ice type made me upset at first but really all of the changes made in the new pokemon games have left me with a positive game experience. Being a gamer that grew up on the good old Gameboy color games, seeing something change like this was a ballsy move for Nintendo. Leading up to the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon I made sure to avoid any spoiler reviews, and anything that could potentially ruin my game experience. There were a few things that were spoiled for me and that was inevitable but working as much as I do, it was easy to stay away from it all. This is the first time I have ever chosen a grass type starter pokemon since Pokemon Gold. Normally I would go for the fire type pokemon in a heartbeat but Rowlett was just too cute to resist and let me tell you, this was a decision I did not regret.

Diving into the story, we have our 11-year old protagonist who is new to the Alola region and is just embarking on their pokemon adventure. Your rival is Hau, the grandson of the Kahuna on the first Island. Hau turned out to be fairly different from most of the rivals that I remember, instead of trying to beat you and becoming the best that there ever was, Hau is very laid back and takes his journey lightly. Hau enjoys his time that he spends with his pokemon and enjoys the adventure and the journey rather than rushing his way to be the best and demolish his opponents. This was an interesting take for me, while we have come a long way from Prof. Oak’s grandson hating our guts and letting us know how much better he is than everyone else, it’s nice to show that your “rival” doesn’t have to be like this all the time. There isn’t a cookie cutter image in life where you will have rivals who challenge you in everything you do and I felt it was important to have Hau be this way.

A few big changes to the game aside from the Alola pokemon is how your pokedex keeps information and how “gym battles” work. After battling a pokemon and beating it for the first time, you get to see what moves are effective and not effective against it. You can also see where their habitats are at which facilitates catching pokemon. If there is a pokemon you haven’t caught or seen yet there is even a QR code system put into it. If a friend happens to have the pokemon you want or has at least seen it, they can simply pull up the QR code for that pokemon and send it you to help you find where that pokemon may be at. While it doesn’t fill in every detail such as height and weight or the description, you can still find out where to catch it and that makes life much easier. As far as gym battles go, there aren’t any. Instead there are trials that must be passed on every island otherwise known as “the island challenge”. This was a huge change to the game but was almost necessary considering that was all the game boiled down to since it’s release in Japan in 1996.

While you encounter wild pokemon, beware of the “call for help” cry that was added on. I caught an Oricoro and named it “AnnoyingBirb” because of how often it called for help. This can be useful though, when searching for Eevee’s I often like to have a full team of female eeveelutions, (not sure why) and I would use this “call for help method” to my advantage if all I ran into were male eevees.

And if youre looking for pokebeans there is even a giant beanstock that you can shake in Poekpelago that will drop pokebeans so that you and your pokemon can grow closer together. This is just one of the many additions made to the game that really does make it worth the price.

Overall Pokemon Sun and Moon have put forth a lot of new ideas and really changed the pokemon gaming experience into what I personally believe was a positive and much needed change. Weather you’re a casual or hardcore gamer there is plenty of options for both and I would recommend this game to long time fans of the game and to newbies.

Pokemon Sun and Moon are available for the Nintendo 3ds

Buried: An Interactive Story

Buried is very much what the title suggests, it’s an interactive story much like the old flash games I used to play on new grounds. A story is being given to you line by line and when there is a choice that needs to be made it gives you the option of selecting one out of two choices. The story isn’t read to you by a voice, but rather lets you read at your own pace and only moves forward when you want to. The only images are pictures to help the reader better imagine the scenery that the protagonists are in and are only accompanied by white letters and an eerie background track.

After an accident has occurred Roger, the main protagonist, wakes up and attempts to recall what happened before he ended up in this position on the floor in the woods of Kentucky. The first choice the game gives you is to either search for your hard hat or to search for your missing crew, it’s interesting how much this decision affects the gameplay later on. Roger continues on through and discovers the logging site that he and his crew were working in, in ruins and only one survivor named Dennis. As you go through and realize that there is something incredibly strange going on, you encounter an underground facility, and then monsters from another dimension.The only images provided are what the room or area looks like, the rest is what your mind makes up for you much like when reading a book. The characters and monsters never have an image that the developers created to go with them, instead they let the player or reader use their creativity to make these creatures come to life in their own minds.  

Overall this was a nice short game to play, it was only five chapters long however, isn’t something that will get your adrenaline pumping like an FPS game. The ending didn’t some as satisfying as I previously thought it would, but that’s probably because of the choices I made throughout the game. That said the writing is very well done and really helps create that eerie atmosphere along with the background images and sound helping everything really tie in well together. Although I’m not sure if the excessive amounts of caffeine and loud headphones caused me to bite my nails while playing this game or if it was just me. Either way, it definitely gave me an early to late 2000’s newgrounds feel and was pleasant to play especially on a busy week.

Buried is available on Steam and for iOS and Android.

Created by Bromoco Games

Outlast

Possibly the only other horror game that I’ve played where I haven’t been able to shoot or fight back when an enemy pops up other than Haunting Grounds.

In Outlast your character, known as Miles Upshur, is driving on his way to Murkoff Psychiatric facility. Starting off you’re told that you’re on a mission to gather enough evidence to prove that Murkoff has been mistreating their patience and using less than ethical methods to treat them.

After entering past the gate, it’s clear that there was some sort of battle that happened on the grounds. Military vehicles are all over the perimeter of the building and all of the doors are locked. After climbing in through a window and making it into the building and going through a few rooms, it’s obvious that there was a struggle going on before you arrived. With furniture knocked over, lights flickering, and blood splattered all over the walls, everything about this building screams “LEAVE”… But we press on anyways. Even though there are many games that have over done the jump scares, Outlast still seems to have them timed perfectly and in just the right amount.  Jump scares aren’t the only thing this game has to offer, with plenty of puzzles and enemies to hide from, it’s clear that Outlast doesn’t have to rely purely on jump scares to scare the living daylights out of the players.  The main antagonist in Outlast is William Billy Hope, who was tested on extensively by the people in Murkoff, and eventually learned to use the Morphogenic Engine that they were forcing on him.

This resulted in “Billy” going through the facility and attacking anyone and everyone in sight. I’ll admit I thought he could be on my side trying to get the place shut down when he helped kill Chris Walker, but it was clear that the madness had consumed him entirely and he had no interest in doing so.

In an interview, Philippe Morin stated that a lot of research was done when creating the story for Outlast. Including working with scientific consultants and using bios of real serial killers and criminally insane people as inspiration for some of the characters and their behavior. As well as researching projects such as the MKUltra program, otherwise known as the mind control program, and Operation Paperclip which recruited many Nazi scientists and brought them into the United States. 

Outlast definitely left me feeling helpless and frustrated and excited all at the same time. The dark environments and low visibility make it so that you try your best to get through and not get caught by the bad guys chasing you, but will inevitably fail to do so at times. Having only a camcorder as your weapon makes it difficult (impossible) to fight back but it does help immensely with seeing in the dark as most of the game shoves you into one dark room after another, adding to the creepy element of the game.

Outlast was initially released for the PC through Steam but is now also available for the PS4 and Xbox One. Currently on sale on steam for $5 as of this posting.

Links:

Interview

Outlast on steam

Haunting Ground

Haunting Ground is a game that is very near and dear to my heart as it is one of the very first survival horror games I’ve ever played. Even though there were plenty of horror titles out such as the Resident Evil franchise, and Silent Hill, not having access to most games and game consoles until about 2008 made the pickings a bit slim for myself.

Right as you start the game, it greets you with a opening scene where we see a woman in a cage named Fiona Beli, and a deformed man named Debilitas. Fiona sees that the lock on her cage was left open and crawls her way out of the cage and out of the basement.  In this game Fiona has to find her way out of this creepy castle all while hiding from some obviously sick and twisted enemies. Along the way Fiona befriends a dog named Hewie, who becomes as essential part to getting out of the castle.

The first of Fiona’s enemies is Debilitas, a malformed, mentally ill groundskeeper, who seems to think Fiona as a beautiful life size doll that he can play with. There are several endings to this game and all depend on how you treat your companion, Hewie, and how you interact with enemies. For example, in the first battle with Debilitas, a chandelier can be dropped on him making him faint and leave Fiona alone, or he can be attacked until he dies resulting in a possibly bad ending.

After fighting Debilitas, the maid known as Daniella, starts stalking and trying to kill Fiona. She resents Fiona for being able to bear children and feel emotion, and warmth and basically everything that a human can. After battling with Daniella, she ends up being impaled through the chest with a large shard of glass falling from the ceiling resulting in her death.

After fighting Daniella the next enemy on the list is Riccardo, who keeps his face hidden for majority of the time that he is in the game. He only reveals himself when he corners Fiona and tells her that he and her father, Ugo, were created by Lorenzo. He reveals that it was him who planned the deaths of her parents and brought her to Beli castle in order to use the Azoth, that was passed from her father to her, in order to be born again. Fiona fights Riccardo on top of a tower and after exhausting him, has Hewie deliver the final blow sending him crashing down on the bridge below killing him. Even after finishing him off, Fiona still has to fight an old man named Lorenzo who seemed to be helping her escape but  also wants to use her and her Azoth to be immortal. After crushing Lorenzo in a rock press, he comes back in a younger form, seemingly stronger and more powerful. 

After fighting young Lorenzo and forcing him into a pit that seems to have lava in it, Fiona then tries her best to make it out of this castle that is now crumbling and falling all around her. As she tries to leave Lorenzo comes back yet again but as a flaming skeleton that can kill Fiona with one touch. After making it through to the exit, Lorenzo catches up with Fiona but before he is able to do anything, he falls and turns to ashes finally ceasing to exist, allowing Fiona to finally leave the castle.

Haunting Grounds isn’t for everyone, but being as it was one of my earliest introductions to the survival horror genre, it does hold a special place in my heart and my gaming shelf. Having multiple endings was something that really made me play this game several times trying to get every ending possible (except for the ending where you kick Hewie the whole game, couldn’t do it).

Haunting grounds was only released for the PS2 and saw a re-release in the Play Station Store in Japan in April 2015 but has not been re-released anywhere else.

Spirits

Even from the icon for this game, these light and floaty spirits had me thinking about the tree spirits from Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke. In this game, the player helps guide the spirits through various puzzles with the goal of getting as many spirits to the portal as possible. 

The spirits can transform into a variety of forms, some being a gust of wind or a small grass bridge or even a spinning ball that burrows through the dirt. The levels start off fairly simple and gradually become more challenging as you go along. The spirits wander almost aimlessly, regardless of the dangers that may await them, it is up to the player to get a certain number of them safely to the portal in order to reach the next level.

From the music, to the artwork, to the mechanics of the game, everything flows nicely together and leaves you calm while you try to solve whatever puzzle is in front of you. Unless of course you’re a perfectionist and want to finish with the “perfect” amount of spirits and bonus plants collected in each level. Trying to get every level with a 100% perfect rating can be a challenge especially with how the spirits flow, both how they walk/waddle and how they float in the air. The puffs of wind that the spirits turn into don’t always go in the exact direction that you intend it to, so that makes it so you have to pay a bit more attention to detail in order to finish the task. With no enemies to worry about, other than the spirits falling onto deadly spikes, you can really focus on a number of other aspects of the game.

Spirits is available on a number of platforms and while it’s on sale on steam for less than $2, you really cant go wrong.

Spirits Spaces of Play

Very Pink Game

Much like the title says, the game is generally pink. This was a very short but adorable game by sheepherds.

Ivy, the main character, receives a letter from an “old friend”,  asking Ivy to come visit them and forgive them for leaving Ivy behind. Ivy then goes into town called “Pink” and proceeds to do a a few simple tasks to get to the next town which is where this “old friend” resides.

From giving pies to a ghost hunter, to solving riddles given by ghosts, to giving doughnuts to a cool greaser guy, this game keeps it short sweet and simple.

For being Sheepherds first game, this was very well done and was a fun one to play. If you  like charming adventure games as well as cute pixels then you should definitely try this game out.

Links:

Very Pink Game

Sheepherders Blog