87th

[87th]

Wordpress

Tumblr wasn’t the best place for a blog like this. Recent changes to tumblr had put me off updating this. That’s why I’m switching to Wordpress. You can read what I post there at http://87th.wordpress.com which is a lot like the URL to this site, so it shouldn’t be hard to remember. Thanks.

[87th]

The messiness of Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is a fun, exciting and utterly charming videogame. Its influence on the industry is scarcely matched by any other game. It has won a generation of passionate fans who keenly obsess over every nook and cranny, but with all of this in mind, one thing that frustrates me is how rarely it’s addressed that the game is a total fucking mess.

Mario games are fascinating documents of games design. Mario himself is designed around the idea of creating a distinctive and identifiable character around the limitations of the Radar Scope arcade board. Going through each game in series considering the restrictions of budget and technology against the developers' intentions, you can appreciate why everything’s placed where it is, why it looks like it does and what it’s supposed to communicate with the player. It's charming and fun, but ultimately very logical. Each landmark of each level has been considered, played with and reconsidered until Nintendo are happy to call it “Mario”. And this is the regard that Mario 64 sticks out in.

Mario 64 came with obvious production challenges, being the first time its designers had to think about how movement in a 3D space could be utilised in a videogame. Even with respect to this, Mario 64 is bizarrely obtuse. Levels are rarely about just navigating obstacles and getting to the end. Players are teased with a short objective title, and they’ll spend the next 5-15 minutes attempting to interpret this as an instruction. Your goal is rarely hinted at by level design or direct intervention. You just kind of bounce about until the game tells you that you did the right thing.

Level design in Mario 64 is overwhelmingly strange, too. Though there are a few with satisfying linear paths to navigate, the majority of the game seems to be set on strange, open playgrounds. You’re not so concerned about the dangers, as you can easily manouvre around them. There are a lot of ledges and slopes that can’t be accessed without use of advanced techniques. Often, there’s not much of a difference between use of “advanced techniques” and exploiting defective collision detection and other glitches. You know all those weird tricks speedrunners use to complete Ocarina of Time in ten minutes or whatever? Playing through the basic game of Mario 64 - as you were intended to - often feels like that. If you know what you’re doing, many levels can be completed within 20 seconds.

And that’s the aspect that’s most divisive about Mario 64. What made it so vital to the childhoods of those who grew up with it, and what makes it seem so unbearably dated to many who approach it for the first time today. It’s not a game about challenges, but a game about curiosity and discovery. Entire levels are hidden in strange locations in Peach’s castle, and they could be missed completely if the player isn't willing to spend enough time experimenting. Mario 64 isn’t a game you’re supposed to tear through, but a toy that you’re supposed to return to, over and over again, discovering little things over a long period of time. The game’s bizarre design is what kept so much of it hidden for many players for so long. It’s what made it such a great talking point for playground discussions and why kids stuck with it for months. "Have you found this?" "Do you know you can do that?" Games had to go further to justify their value back then, but the techniques Mario 64 uses have gone far out of fashion.

Super Mario Sunshine went further in Mario 64′s direction of sloppy objectives and unintuitive level design, and took a lot of criticism for it, encouraging Nintendo to reevaluate the core strengths of the entire franchise and work on the back-to-basics New Super Mario Bros series. Since then, Nintendo seem to have solidified a lot of rules about what can’t be done in a Mario game (particularly noticeable in how much more consistent character designs became after the early 2000s). And in turn, that’s what makes Mario 64 a much more interesting game than most recent Mario games. As brilliant as Super Mario 3D World was, it wasn’t something that often surprised or puzzled you. From your first few minutes of play, you could quite accurately assume how most of the game was going to pan out. It was a better game, but less distinctive and ambitious. Less curious and memorable.

It’s a balance of these directions that can result in better games. Many insist that the Mario series should go back to Mario 64′s structure to make more memorable and immersive titles. They see the fun and gratifying gameplay of the more traditional games and want those moments hidden behind walls of obscurity. I don’t think it’s wise to dismiss their demands entirely, but I think their perceptions of Mario 64′s quality and strengths are poorly founded. I think Mario should be a thing that encourages players to experiment and find their own solutions, but not to the detriment of a designed experience. There’s a certain point where you feel like you’re breaking the game, and playing something the developers didn’t intend on. That’s bonafide “bad game” territory. A game where you have to make up your own rules isn’t much of a game to begin with.

But it’s this messiness that makes Mario 64 so distinctive and even lovable. Denying it is denying what Mario 64 is. Can we please stop calling Mario 64 “perfect”? Because it’s really obviously not. And in some regards, it’s better because it's not.

[87th]

Why Ocarina of Time is the best one

The Legend of Zelda is a deeply beloved series. People engage with these games on a deeper level than most. Not so much in discovering every nuance of the gameplay, or the storylines, but in the connections players feel with each world. Talk to anyone who honestly loves the Zelda series, and they'll always talk about the worlds. They'll talk about the sense of adventure, and the strange civilisations and how important it all felt to them in their first days with the games.

With Majora's Mask 3D coming out next week, and the news of an (oh god) live-action Netflix series in development, there's a lot of Zelda talk happening at the moment. And whenever there's Zelda talk, there's a lot of people talking utter shite.

The wider Zelda fan community is an exasperating thing. Anyone who's lived with it for while will know the patterns. The new game is great for a wee while. Then people rag on the controversial bits. Then that game gets known as the worst in the series. Then in 10 years time, loads of people call it the best one. It happened with Majora's Mask, it happened with Wind Waker. Twilight Princess is starting to come out the other side of it. You can already see the ridiculous things people are saying about Skyward Sword without consideration for how incredible that game's high points were. I'd like to think anyone reading this would have come to their own conclusions about their preferences in the series, based on their own personal experiences with the games, and how meaningful that time was to them, and not because of stupid trends or some argument some funny dick on YouTube made or whatever. I'd like to assume whatever your opinion is, it's an interesting and ultimately valid one.

It doesn't matter though, because Ocarina of Time is obviously the best one.

Obviously it is.

Ocarina of Time changed the series fundamentally. The timeline (which is a load of nonsense anyway, but disregard that) has folded itself around this one point at its center. Ocarina of Time is the most important Zelda game, and in many regards, the most important Nintendo game. Mario 64 was a playground of experimental concepts, but Ocarina was the first 3D game to play with the space so cleverly and naturally. Link jumped and slashed with precision and energy. Every location felt like a real place, with walls and ceilings giving a tangible sense of physicality to everything. Dungeons and towns came with their own atmospheres and defining attributes. Puzzle design was changed dramatically, with players having to consider a whole new range of movement to jump and clawshot around. Verticality wasn't just something the player had to imagine, but a tangible part of what they were working with.

It's not just that though.

Ocarina of Time was the first time in the series Nintendo had access to cinematic techniques, and they used them to flesh out the world and make the adventure feel truly important. In A Link to the Past, Link's interactions were simple dialogue boxes. These moments rarely felt unique or important. In Ocarina of Time, they were paced, intricately shot things, making use of subtle body language, atmospheric lighting and dynamic camera techniques. Interactions could be dramatic or funny or scary or strange. You remembered these moments, and felt a deeper connection to the world and its people because of it. Kakariko Village, Lon Lon Ranch, Goron City, Hyrule Castle. They all felt so distinct and beloved because of the people players had met there. And because the world was solidly connected, it made it feel much more real and easier for players to attach themselves to.

It's not just that either.

Central to the game is the theme of time. What it means to grow older, and what we lose from youth. It's never explored too obnoxiously or explicitly in Ocarina of Time, but it's there. In Sheik's speeches before each adult dungeon. In the reactions of the people of Kokiri Forest to an older Link. In the ruins of Hyrule Castle. It's a theme that seems mysterious and strange to younger players, but develops a deep resonance with them as they grow older. Ocarina of Time is a game to grow up with. A game you should play again at different points in your life. Something to sit and consider, and will always remain relevant. The series has never reached this height since.

It's not just that either.

There's so much that Ocarina of Time gets right. It's got so much going for it. I'll always welcome their efforts, but I doubt Nintendo will ever create another game that feels this real, this full of life, and this vital.

[87th]

Possible 2015 highlights

Now 2014's out of the way (kind of - I'm just starting to catch up with some of the things I missed), I thought it might be nice to look at some of the games I'm excited about in 2015.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker Oh, here. I've already got this. I've actually completed it already. Officially, it's not out in Europe until 2015, but a load of places started selling it before Christmas. But, aye. It's really good. Nintendo's big action releases last year weren't really narratively-driven things, and you sometimes forget how much you miss something that feels like an adventure until you get a new one, and that's part of what makes Captain Toad feel so nice. The game's full of little puzzles which are never too devious or tricky, but always clever enough to feel rewarding. A modest little game that plays on a lot of what Nintendo have done well in other franchises, while adding enough of its own personality to make it feel unique. It's a 2015 game. Of course I should have put it in here. What are you whining about? I'll do a review if I feel like it.

Animal Crossing x Mario Kart 8 I listed a game I already own, so of course I can talk about a DLC pack for my 2014 GOTY. I mean, we really don't know much about this, but the Zelda pack added a temendous amount of great content to the game, and it feels fantastic knowing we're due for the same level of excitement in a few months time. And they're establishing Isabelle as a character on the same level of importance as Mario and Link! How great is that?

Yoshi's Woolly World A lot of this list is going to be based on stuff I've been lucky enough to play, actually. I've never been too fussed about the Yoshi's Island games. I know why people like them. I know why my love for Kirby means I probably ought to like them more than I do. They've never really held my interest though. Woolly World seems to do a lot to make the core gameplay, and the presentation, much more interesting. New level gimmicks and fun wool-themed design give the game more variety, and the New Super Mario Bros-style co-op feels much more at home in the floaty, rough and tumble Yoshi gameplay. We haven't seen a hell of a lot of this game yet, but what has been shown seems very promising.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number The sequel to one of the most tense and satisfying indie games seems to be taking the opportunity to make things little more varied and complex. New characters come with their own abilities that change up strategies far more than the masks in the first game did, and the potential of a level editor in a game with so many basic, but meaningful design choices seems ideal. I'm not expecting anything revolutionary, but a delicately handled sequel to a fantastic game is enough.

Star Fox (Wii U) We still don't know much, but it's been a very long time since this series was in the hands of its creators, and that seems like reason enough to be optimistic about this. Lylat Wars felt like it was establishing a new genre, and though rail shooter games like Sin & Punishment and Kid Icarus: Uprising have certainly played around with a simular style of gameplay, nothing has felt as close to the ideal of a weighty, well defined 3D shmup. What's been said about motion-control has made some fans nervous, but the last couple of years have proven Nintendo really know how to rethink their old franchises.

Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Power Paintbrush was an interesting game, on paper. One that introduced relatable new mechanics and presented them well, but I don't think it really lived up to its potential. The spiritual sequel seems to be doing a lot to remedy that, by incorporating more of what the Kirby franchise has to offer. More open, platforming style levels with hidden extras, instead of strictly designed puzzle rooms should make gameplay less restrictive, and more of a creative, playful thing. Oh, and they're following Epic Yarn and Woolly World with another really cute high-concept craft material art style, and that's hard to stay cold towards.

OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood I'm probably going to get more sick of the THPS1 vs THPS2 analogies than just about anybody else, but they're just too bloody appropriate. OlliOlli established the IP's playstyle in a very basic and appealing way, but OlliOlli2 really explores the potential of these mechanics with huge ramps, combo-connecting manuals and branching paths. What I've played of this seemed revelatory, and I'm struggling to live with the original game, knowing how much better they're making the sequel. The kind of painful anticipation that I haven't felt in years, and it's for a stupid 2D skateboarding game. Well done, roll7.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Theoretically, this is a really big deal. Ocarina of Time is probably my favourite Nintendo game, Ocarina of Time 3D is the best version of the game, and this is the sequel. I've never been a very big fan of Majora's Mask, but theoretically, this could iron out all the problems I had with it. Majora's Mask was developed ridiculously quickly for a Zelda game, and that lead to a lot of ponderous design choices. I'm not sure how much of that they could change without changing the gameplay on quite a fundamental level, but this remake has already been in development for longer than the original was. There's definitely potential for this to let all the great stuff in the original shine through, while solving a lot of its problems. However well it goes, I definitely want to play it.

No Man's Sky To be honest, I'm a less optimistic about this one than any other game in this list, but there's definitely potential here. We've seen a lot of footage of just how much there is in this game, and how lovely that is, but not what you actually get to do. I mean, you're traveling through a fully explorable fictional universe. Potentially, you ought to be able to do just about anything. Not sure why we haven't seen any of that yet, then. Is this just a really boring game? The Joe Danger guys' really boring game? Is that likely?

Splatoon After Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros, this feels like the next big deal for online Nintendo games. Splatoon looks to reinvent a genre that's become something of a joke to older gamers, using a creativity and understanding of games design that's quite unique to Nintendo. As focused on the movement and exploration as the combat, gameplay in Splatoon looks remarkably distinctive and well considered. Unreal Tournament crossed with Mario might seem like a difficult thing to imagine working well, but these guys really know how to make sense out of a bizarre formula like that.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 By all rights, this could be another forgettable game only made interesting by the name its desperate publisher has attached to it, but even if that's the case, Barry Burton is back, and it looks like they know how to write for him. That's enough.

Xenoblade Chronicles X This has to be the best RPG ever made, by default. Knowing what we know, and knowing what this looks like, it just can't end up any other way. Just seeing that ambition and art direction in HD would be enough, but the scope's gone far beyond that. Modern cities, space travel, mechs, alien dinosaurs. Even if they got a lot of things weirdly wrong, this would still be a sure shot. One of the safest predictions of the year, despite being one of the most ludicrously ambitious games.

Yakuza 5 For the series' diehard following of fans, the announcement of an English version of this game was on-par with perennial vaporware clichés of the Shenmue and Half-Life sequels. It's been so long since the game was originally announced that it might have become hard to remember why this game is so exciting, though. Five cities and five playable characters, each offering their own radically distinctive portion of the game. A new engine, presenting a more naturally flowing world. Even more ridiculously brutal heat moves than Yakuza 4. Playable Taiko no Tatsujin in the Club Sega arcades. Taiga Saejima literally fighting bears. Yakuza 4 provided a world that I was excited to return to every time I switched it on, and 5 looks to outshine it in every regard.

The Legend of Zelda (Wii U) One of the more enigmatic entries on this list, but one that's really difficult not to get excited about. Seeming to push the more open design of A Link Between Worlds even further, this game doesn't seem to make a distinction between overworld and dungeon. The reveal teaser appears to show a boss chasing Link through Hyrule, suggesting a much looser, Shadow of the Colossus style of gameplay. Skyward Sword really suffered for lacking the feeling of a connected, diverse world, and since free roaming seems to be the primary focus here, I think it's safe to say the new Zelda will feel like a very convincing location. Experimentation is always to be welcomed when changes are as thoroughly scrutinised as they are in the new Zelda games. I'm very optimistic about this.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain I know how much of a disappointment I could be setting myself up for here, but I am expecting this to be the best game ever made. Kojima has spent years trying to get away from Metal Gear to make something more daring and relevant, and now he seems to be bringing the game he was talking about in a way that doesn't feel like a compromise. Using all the love the fans have for the games and turning it against them. Even disregarding its story, setting and tone, the core gameplay that was introduced in Ground Zeroes felt remarkably flexible and instictive, and what we've seen of The Phantom Pain shows a huge variety of clever, satisfying options they're going to give to players on top of what they've learned. If there's ever been a time for Kojima fans to be excited, it's 2015.

Of course, we don't know every game that's coming out in 2015 yet. Nintendo have a habit of not revealing things until a few months before release now, and publishers always hold a few big surprises until E3. I'm sure we're due a few New 3DS exclusives before this time next year. It's difficult to predict how many of these games will end up being among the year's best, but there definitely seems to be good reasons to look forward to them.

[87th]

GAME OF THE YEAR 2014 - MARIO KART 8

[song - Burning Down The House (Live) - Talking Heads]

How easy that was. Nothing else had a fucking chance.

Nintendo have been becoming fucking astounding in the last few years. Every game concept turns into the most polished version of that idea. Forget about your big name directors. Nintendo has the best development teams in the industry. And when they're put to work on something as established and beloved as Mario Kart, they can really shine.

Mario Kart 8 is the most fluid feeling game in the series, by a mile. Go back and play 7, and the overwhelmingly stiff and robotic handling of the vehicles will give you a headache. In 8, things swoop and drift with elegant nuance. It all feels so natural, despite its cartoonish bounce and weight. It's deep and technical, but skill isn't gained through study, but through play.

What really feels new in Mario Kart 8 is the sense of occassion in each race. Previous games often felt quiet, with their empty tracks and low key countdowns. In 8, everything is presented as a televised event, with audiences, camera crews and giant screens decorating the more comfortable sections of the tracks. This extends into the presentation of the game's excellent Mario Kart TV replay sharing tool. It doesn't play into the gameplay directly, but it sets everything up brilliantly, and makes each race feel important and exciting. This doesn't just feel like a race. It feels like everything Nintendo has done has been leading up to this.

You know how other people talk about games? They talk about the bits in them? They talk about the bit where the dogs jump through the windows, or the bit where he launches a cow with a fridge, or the only things of any interest in the Bioshock series? Racing games don't get to have bits, and that makes them feel kind of disposible. Like they're fun, but they can be totally forgotten about when the better version gets made? Mario Kart 8 has bits. Cinematic moments, designed to make you feel a significant impact when they're triggered, but never too overbearing or distracting. Never annoying.

Tracks are full of little cinematically handled moments. They're legitimately directed sections, using lighting and music purposefully. The result is that tracks come with their own very deliberate atmosphere, and it often changes within the length of a single lap. Tracks might not always be about the stuff in them, but the things they do. It mskes tracks in Mario Kart 8 unforgettable. This is an unforgettable racing game.

But Mario Kart isn't a game about bits. It's a game about gameplay. It's one you love because you know what a fucking videogame is.Drifting feels so great, and the boosts feel so earned. The balancing is designed to make new players excited and to wipe out any veteran who's in risk of becoming an arsehole.

And have you seen this fucking game? Look at this fucking game! This fucking game that you can buy and play and is more fun than any other game this generation. How have they made this? How is this so beautiful and still so much fun? I don't what to say. I mean, I don't mean to bring the fucking console wars into this, but do people know the cheap one can do this? Do they know how fucking boring Destiny is?

Nintendo have made fun into a science, and there's no better show of their talents than when they make an intricate, skill-based multiplayer game like this. And when they put all of their cards on the table and use Mario? That's something huge.

Mario Kart 8 could convince me nothing bad ever happened. It's too good to have come from this world. How can it be real? It's a fucking dream. Have another GOTY award, Nintendo. Who else was I going to give this to?

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - OLD GAME OF THE YEAR - Taiko no Tatsujin

[song - "Ohayou! Taiko Summer" from Taiko no Tatsujin: Atsumare! Matsuri da! Yondaime]

Tai-ii-ko-no-Tatsu-jiinnnnnn!!

I fucking love this game, man. What do you get if you take the soundteam from Katamari Damacy and ask them to write music for a peripheral-based rhythm game? An import exclusive, of course! Stick a few of those on a multipack DVD-R and you've got some great times ahead of you. Taiko no Tatsujin's a game made from very basic elements, and spun out to the nth degree. Big, silly, smile-on-your-face fun, and every part of it contributes to that experience.

You've got your you've got your tokusatsu theme tunes, you've got your remixes of obscure Taito background music, you've got your screaming techno arrangements of nursery rhymes. Whatever you're into, you'll be willing to forget to bang a stupid toy drum along to bizarre music. Taiko no Tatsujin is a game you can quietly master in your own time, or a game you can set aside until you've got a house full of screaming drunks. It's fun, fun, fun and I love it.

Want a game with both the Mickey Mouse Club theme tune and Rotterdam Nation from Ridge Racer? Get on Taiko no Tatsujin, man.

Now, I don't really expect many people to get the daft import peripherals and start playing these eccentric rhythm games - though if you like that idea, you've certainly got my approval. What I'd like you take from this is how easy it is to softmod a PS2 and get access to brilliant oddities that never made it over here. Just get a special save on your memory card, and the job's done, basically. If you're into discovering games by yourself, the PS2 import scene is one of the biggest, oddest sources for relatively unknown classics to look through. You might find your next favourite game in there. Get to work.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 2 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

[song - Snakes - Pixies]

To some extent, Kojima's always had a fairly precise vision of what Metal Gear was supposed to be. The kinds of films it would attempt to emulate, and rethink for the context of a videogame. Ground Zeroes does this stuff better than any other game in the series. In fact, it outshines its influences and the series' conventions. It's a clean slate. Ground Zero.

Forget about MGS. This is Tactical Espionage Action for the modern age. An incredible new engine designed from the ground up to deliver this vision. Kojima has put his full weight behind making this game precisely what he wanted it to be.

Previous games were essentially refinements of what had been established. For all its successes, MGS4 was a game that was held back by a need to honour the fans' intense level of appreciation for plot points and characters. Everything had to have a triumphant send-off that respected every angle of what these things were. Ground Zeroes treats its few returning characters and locations horribly. Metal Gear is taking a new direction, and old Metal Gear will suffer in order to deliver it.

Fundamentally, the game plays very differently. It kind of feels like what the series has been attempting since MGS3, but relieved of any duties to reward players for lessons learned in previous games. The binoculars first appeared in the original MSX2 game, and have stuck with the series since, but they've never been a terribly vital item. Now, they're essential. They don't just allow you to plan out routes through complicated, multi-layered environments, but they also mark spotted enemies. It replaces the series' old Soliton radar with something less passive, and more influenced by the player's willingness to pace themselves.

Losing your patience and storming in is more of a risk than ever before. There's no separate sections to run towards if things get too heated where you are. Camp Omega is one, intricately functioning location. Patrol routes sweep the entire base, and guards can enter jeeps and armoured transport to chase you through the game's full map, if you don't find a way to get away from them.

Metal Gear has always given players far more options than other games on the market, and Ground Zeroes continues to push the envelope. Every inch of Camp Omega can be explored, and utilised. Vehicles can be stolen. Guard towers can be comandeered or destroyed. You can even sneak into the base's power grid and shut it down. You have so many ways to accomplish your straightforward objectives that you always feel in control, and every method always feels like playing a brilliantly designed, deliberately paced videogame.

Hideo Kojima has been my favourite designer in the industry for a decade and a half now, but my own interests seemed to be responsible for a lot of that. I want to play dark cyberpunk text adventures with campy characters and a robot sidekick. I want to play rigidly designed, dreary John Carpenter tributes. Ground Zeroes feels like something that anyone can understand and appreciate, with tone and ideas that feel more distinct from its influences than anything Kojima's done before.

Ground Zeroes is only a preview, though. A brief handful of missions, and an introduction to Metal Gear Solid V. It's an odd midquel between the shonen anime-influenced Peace Walker and the daring psychological drama that The Phantom Pain's promised to be. A demonstration of new mechanics and fluid controls that feel welcome in the game's open environments. If MGS5 can keep all its promises, I have little doubt that it will be the best game in the series, and it will strip Metal Gear Solid of its title as my favourite game ever made. It's a bold statement, but Ground Zeroes has given me the confidence to believe it.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 3 - Shovel Knight

[song - Going Down - Freddie King]

You want to talk about surprises? Fucking Shovel Knight, man. Holy shit.

A new studio, seemingly making a cute little Kickstarter-funded tribute to NES Capcom games. This game is fucking stunning. You're into old games? This is up there, man. It's fucking, UP THERE.

Shovel Knight is building off loads of different inspirations. There's stuff that feels like Mega Man and Duck Tales, obviously, but also Castlevania, Dark Souls, Zelda, Gunstar Heroes, and crucially for me - Monster World IV. Shovel Knight might be quickest I've fallen in love with an unfamiliar IP since I first played that game.

Crucially, Shovel Knight isn't a clone of anything. It looks like Mega Man, but calling it a Mega Man clone is doing the game a disservice and making a mistake. You can tell the developers grew up with these games and took inspiration from them, but it's just serving as a base for all their fantastic original ideas. I mean, if you loved a game that much, of course your dream project would turn out a bit like it. That's what your idea of a platformer is.

Shovel Knight feels better than any of Capcom's old NES games, though. There's a fluidity to the game that no game on that system, not even Super Mario Bros 3, could match. Yacht Club Games have given Shovel Knight a great satisfying weight and bounce. People often have a very subjective opinion of what a platformer should feel like. There's no objective rules to that. Some say Sonic feels right. Some say Mega Man feels right. I don't think anyone would say Shovel Knight doesn't feel right.

A large aspect of Shovel Knight is treasure hunting. Treasure is scattered around the levels. Pick it up, and you can spend it on upgrades and items, but if you die, you'll lose a portion of it. Like Dark Souls, you can pick up this treasure if you go collect it on your next life, but maybe that area was too much of a risk in the first place? Maybe going back would only mean losing more treasure? They're questions worth asking, as the seemingly simple level design hides opportunities for exploration and experimentation. You're constantly finding hidden rooms in walls, with tricky little challenges inside. They're often the hardest parts of a level, but they reward you with a fitting amount of treasure. It just depends on whether you're willing to take that chance.

It's just one little mechanic in this bouncy, clever platformer. Shovel Knight has some of the best one-level gimmicks I've seen in years, and matches it with a brilliant atmosphere. Designs and writing are witty, but subtle enough to keep it from feeling like one of those obnoxious indie games. And the music? Oh, the music. You've got to play this game, man.

Shovel Knight isn't a game to buy for a nostalgia trip. It's a game to buy if you wished people still made games like these. Unlike things like Mega Man 9 and DuckTales Remastered, Shovel Knight feels like a genuinely unique game that learns from what's been established in the genre. If Shovel Knight was a NES game, a SNES game or a Mega Drive game, it would be one of the very best on its console. As it is, it's one of the very best games of this generation.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 4 - Super Smash Bros for Wii U

[song - Speed Fighter 7.0 - Masaya Matsuura]

Smash Bros is nonsense. It's a big whirring, squealing, squawking thing that loves videogames, and really loves people who love videogames. If you have silly friends who love videogames, it's utter bliss.

Smash Bros is often described as a fighting game, and I think that gives people the wrong impression. I'd rather think of it as a competitive platformer. The game isn't really about fighting, but rather, standing on a floating platform, and trying to make sure everyone else falls off it. That often means punching, kicking and shooting them, but you're not trying to make these characters unconcious. You're just wearing them down so they have less energy to get back on the platform.

Seeing it in that light, it's easier to appreciate how daft this thing is. I mean, it's the faceless avatar from Wii Fit chucking barrels at Ludwig Koopa. If you love Nintendo, this thing is a fucking riot.

Of course, the gameplay is only a fraction of Smash Bros' appeal. Maybe the most enticing aspect is that each entry becomes a celebration of videogames in general. Not only have you got levels and characters from 30 years worth of Nintendo games, you've got references and music from just about everything the company could include. The list of composers on the soundtrack is a veritable A to Z of genius music talent from the Japanese games industry, including Streets of Rage's Yuzo Koshiro, God Hand's Masafumi Takada and legendary Nintendo composer, Koji Kondo. Super Smash Bros for Wii U easily has the best soundtrack in any game ever made. It almost feels like cheating, giving it that honour. Really though, it's a multiplayer game. You can only appreciate it so much by yourself. The real game only starts when you've got a group of friends around to shout and cry with you. Nintendo have done their best to make this game as accomodating as possible, meaning anybody with any level of Smash Bros experience can feel right at home here. When I was going through college, my days were filled with 4 player games of Melee, and the new Gamecube adaptor, returning levels and familiar characters made me feel instantly comfortable with the new game, and excited to discover everything that had been added. If you grew up with Brawl or even if you've just started with the new 3DS game, there's familiar content and control options to warm you up to what this game does. Sure, there's no official N64 adaptor, but come on. That game's not why you love Smash Bros.

I was worried, growing older and drifting from old friends would mean I'd only have a relatively limited appreciation of Smash Bros, but online multiplayer is honestly as much fun as I had back when we were trying to fit four of us into someone's pokey childhood bedroom. Taunts, unpredictable item generation and ridiculous comebacks feel just as funny and heartbreaking as they ever did. I'm thrilled to find I love the online support as much as I do.

Again, that's not Smash Bros' whole appeal. It's a game filled with stuff. Nintendo have collaborated with key staff from the incredible Go Vacation to fill this Smash Bros with more stuff than ever before.  So many trophies to collect, so many challenges to complete, and so characters to try. Between the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game, I think I've clocked around 60 hours, and there's still characters I feel like I've barely had a chance to try. This is a game that's designed from the ground up to last you years.

Smash Bros isn't a game you play through and put aside. It's an ongoing thing made by kind people, bursting with love for videogames. It's a foundation for your Wii U to sit on through the years. It's something to pull out every time you have gamer friends over. 3D World and Pikmin 3 are must-have Wii U titles because they're great, but Smash Bros is a must-have for all the value it adds to your console. Super Smash Bros is a mad, screaming accomplishment.

[87th]

#DOGCEMBER

The nice guys at Midnight Resistance are doing another themed writing month for December again. This time, the theme is dogs. I wrote a thing about PaRappa for them. Here is a link to it - http://midnightresistance.co.uk/articles/parappa

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - BONUS - biohazard HD Remaster

[song - Mudcrutch - Scare Easy]

This wasn't eligible for inclusion on the list, since it's a rerelease of a game that came out in a different year, but it would be mean if I didn't talk about it.

Resident Evil HD isn't out in the west yet, but it is available in English to Hong Kong residents, and the limited big box version is really nice. An import seemed like a no-brainer to me. That's not a zombie pun.

I love Resident Evil, and if you're talking about the classic games, in my mind, the Gamecube remake of the original always stood head and shoulders above others in the series. The game plays with the idea of what a remake is, and how much that can offer this kind of scenario. Expectations are set up based on the original, and twisted or teased into something bewildering. The sense of comfort that comes with familiarity is gone, and now you don't know what you can trust in this place you thought you knew.

What makes Resident Evil 1 work so well is that it's a game all about regret. You make decisions based on what you assume is ahead of you, prepare for them, and have to suffer the consequences of what you did wrongly. Decisions are very deliberate, considered things, but when the game throws an unpredictable threat at you, that can all go out the window. Taking damage leaves your character visibly wounded, and slower for it, making you more vulnerable. The only respawn points in the game are designated save points, and those are further limited by the number of ink ribbons you've got with you. In the remake, bodies have to be disposed of, either by burning them or with a well-prepared headshot. Failing that, they'll come back, faster and stronger. Death is always a lingering threat, and there's loads of variables behind each one. Maybe you shouldn't have used that item there? Maybe you shouldn't have used all your ammo on that one enemy? Maybe you should have done that differently? Maybe it's all too late? Regret, regret, regret. It builds up to a uniquely tense, and engaging experience.

The remake is one of Capcom's all-time classics, and it deserves this delicately handled HD remaster. The design and techniques used to make Resi 1 such a beautiful Gamecube game still shine, but the console's low resolution placed it rigidly in the pre-HD era. Seeing everything so sharply defined and distinct really shows off what a great job both Capcom teams did with the project. HD Revival feels like an apology from Capcom for the directions they've pushed the series since Mikami left. Filled with extras for those who love to replay the game, and bonuses within the fairly reasonably priced big box version are really nice for big fans.

Controversially, Capcom have decided to add optional new control options that radically change the feel of the game. They're fluid and dynamic, and feel akin to Devil May Cry. They work well. To me though, that's never what Resident Evil was about. Call me nostalgic, but I don't think that side stepping a lunging enemy should feel instictive. I think that the struggle to navigate through these corridors is an essential part of the experience. You're not a superhero. You're a normal person. Making mistakes is all part of that experience. That's all very subjective, and playing the game with old controls looks messy, but it's part of why I like how these games play.

It's those ungamey design choices that keep Resident Evil feeling distinctive and impactful. Combat isn't gratifying or exciting. It's tense and clumsy in a way that makes you doubt every opportunity to get rid of a threat. Looking at other shooting games from the mid-nineties, it's remarkable how little Resident Evil has in common with them. It's not a game about fun. It's one of the first action games that's more interested in developing a rich experience, and not one about the story, but the raw emotional reaction of the player to the gameplay and atmosphere. The remake builds on the sense of threat by making the player directly responsible for some of the game's most dangerous monsters. You can never feel too safe in the game, and when that's because of something you overlooked, you learn from that mistake. Thanks to your limited inventory space and your initially limited access to areas, you'll often have to revisit places, and knowing what you might have left there builds a sense of dread. It's an intricate design with facets you don't often find in games today.

Resident Evil made Mikami a big name in the industry, but mainly for the game's ambition and distinctiveness at the time. Now, those things don't mean much. What you're left with is a brilliantly designed game, and one I love to revisit. Don't get worked up about the merits of this as an HD rerelease. It's an excuse to replay one of the best games ever made.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 5 - The Evil Within

[song - Crazy - Violent Femmes]

Honestly, I think I was a little underwhelmed by my first playthrough of The Evil Within. It had too much to live up to. This is the first game from Mikami's new studio, and something of a preview of what the rest of his career could be. Not only that, but he's previously claimed he intended for this to be his last directorial effort, following the winning streak of Resident Evil 4, God Hand and Vanquish. There's a part of me that just wants to compartmentalise The Evil Within in the "disappointment" category in my mind, but playing it again, I'm surprised by how much I actually really enjoy all of it.

It's weird, but I think the character customisation menu's one of the scariest sections of the game. It's always presenting you with options and offering strategies, that could lead to regrettable choices. In a world that keeps changing so dramatically, you never know what's coming up next, and because of that, you don't know what upgrades will benefit you in the next area. It's subtle, and possibly even an accidental quirk of the design, but it builds on the feeling of helplessness that much of the rest of the game is so keen to put at the forefront.

Calling the core gameplay "fun" would likely give the wrong impression, but it's satisfying in a way that games rarely manage. You're always aware of the threat of potential enemies and traps nearby, but never certain. There's no Resident Evil "zombie noise", and certainly no stealth game radar, so you feel much wearier, exploring these dark, intricate environments. Again, it's that whole "false predictions" thing. You're made to feel weaker by not knowing what you're approaching, and if something surprises you off-guard, you might have very little time to react.

Of course, it's Mikami, so it's never unfair with deliberate jump scares, or anything. You become intimately familiar with the limitations of the controls, your viewing angle, and your abilities very early on. If you die, you know it's your fault, and understanding that threat makes your successes much more meaningful.

Mikami knows how limitations can add to a horror game, and with available ammo so valuable, you often find yourself routing through the guts and sewage to look for bullets. Having too little can lead to some panicked reactions and mistakes, but even when you have enough, you never know how much you should be using. This was true for Resident Evil, but you can't just jump into another room to avoid enemies here. They'll scramble up walls and through windows just to get to you. There's rarely an easy way to become safe.

It's a shame that this kind of meaningful gameplay didn't take more of a presidence over the flashy, boring scripted sequences that western publishers are so keen to encourage, but that weight and balance of Mikami's design is still all over The Evil Within. That's not dismissing the cutscenes and memorable scene setting sections that add to the atmosphere and develop the game's tone. It's just that balance that's disappointing. It's not even close to his best work, but The Evil Within might be the best thing we can expect under these circumstances. Gameplay this rich and well considered should never be dismissed. It should be celebrated when it happens. You ought to play The Evil Within. You might just love it.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - OLD GAME HIGHLIGHTS (in no particular order)

[song - Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Tokyo Storm Warning] Let's talk about some good old games I played this year. GRADIUS V - PLAYSTATION 2

This year, I softmodded my PS2, and it's made a huge impact on my relationship with the console. Not only have I been able to play loads of import-only oddities, I've been able to play some stuff that eBay prices had put me off buying. Gradius V is one of the best. I've always loved Treasure, but found their shmups a little too technical and kind of dry. There's not enough space to really play around in them. You just kind of have to follow what the games want you to do. Not enough options. Not enough Gradius.

Good thing, then, that Treasure made a Gradius game. And it's the best in the series. This is what I imagine the guys at Treasure had in their heads when they played the games as children. Everything is realised as an element in a mad space dogfight, with fantastic art direction and a tone that balances videogame nonsense and sci-fi pretention just right for something really engaging and fun. Levels are immersive and creative, with each one introducing something unique and memorable. Controls and weapon options are spot on. The game challenges you to play through on one credit, and loosens its grip on that goal each time you fail. It's a game that deserves to be remembered. An HD rerelease is long overdue.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE MINISH CAP - GAMEBOY ADVANCE It's got to the point where I want to complete a Zelda game every year, and this year, thanks to the Wii U Virtual Console, it was Minish Cap. When a GBA game like this comes out on the Virtual Console, I like to play it with the SNES pad and pretend that's how it was supposed to be enjoyed. Metroid Fusion didn't hold up under that light, but Minish Cap did really well compared to A Link to the Past.

This is a really tight, creative little entry in the series. Lots of fun things to play around with in your inventory, a size shifting mechanic that's used cleverly, and not much filler. Handheld versions of big franchises often spread out their content quite thickly to do their best with a small cartridge size, but Minish Cap doesn't really waste your time. You can often just head for the dungeons and get to working with some lovely puzzles and bosses. There's plenty of side quests and exploration for those who want that, including the liveliest post-game of any Zelda, but the rest of the game is refreshingly straightforward. A nice one to check off your list.

EXCITE TRUCK - WII One truth that becomes more and more unavoidable for anyone with an interest in old games is how underrated the Wii is, and how filled with hidden gems its library is. Excite Truck uses a Nintendo brand, but it's an obnoxiously un-Japanese arcade-style game along the lines of SSX or San Francisco Rush. It's noisy, high flying nonsense, and it's great fun. You tilt and boost through the air to maximise your score and take out rivals by smashing into them or warping the land beneath them to send them flying. Few games manage to be this silly and exhilarating.

This kind of level of motion control has become unfashionable now, but it allows for a really visceral and engaging style of play here. Tilting forward and backwards on your seat to try to get the most out of jumps and drifts. It really works well, and makes each race much more of an event than you'd expect. Excite Truck is incredibly undervalued. You should definitely look out for a cheap copy.

BOMBERMAN FANTASY RACE - PLAYSTATION Nobody played it. Even fewer understood it. Fantasy Race is a hidden gem, if ever there was one. It looks like an awkward attempt at a kart racer, but this is really just Hudson getting a chance to make something mental. Running around on cartoon kangaroos and rhinos, Bomberman and his palette-swapped opponents throw bombs around a race track, literally bouncing off the walls to get ahead of each other.

As inspired by kart racers as platformers and horse racing games, this is a bizarre, scrappy little project with a lot of depth to it. There's loads of tricky techniques to practice and you'll need to learn a few before you can start winning races. Levels feature huge gaps and ridiculous short-cuts, just waiting for you to get confident enough to attempt them, and once you start getting the hang of it, they become intensely rewarding. A deep, fiercely competitive game, and one of the most unique and satisfying racing games you could hope to find.

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES - WII Still playing it. Still loving it. Xenoblade looks at every JRPG convention, and rethinks anything that might come across as boring or superfluous. The result is a really tight design that has ridiculous depth, but never wastes your time. Every old idea is contextualised in a way that absolutely makes sense. If it's an idea with value, but might bore some players, it's entirely optional. Xenoblade Chronicles is an incredibly deep game, but only if that's what you want from it.

Landscapes are gigantic and beautiful, and tempt you to explore every inch of them - which you can do. The addition of a jump button and seemless transitions into fights gives Xenoblade much more of an action feel, but there's more than enough menus and decisions to delight the purists. A huge, elegant game that should appeal to pretty much anyone who plays games. Nintendo's interest in pushing this as a big new brand is totally justified, and if you're picking up a New 3DS, the new port should be at the top of your list of excuses for that purchase.

TEARAWAY - PLAYSTATION VITA Barely missing last year's list, because I only got a chance to play it a couple of months later. Tearaway is a real gem that I think is already getting undue dismissal from a lot of people. This is the game Media Molecule always should have made. As creative and engaging as LittleBigPlanet, but with more relatable fourth-wall breaking and customisation, with a grounding in really excellent games design. A long, linear journey through beautiful landscapes with new gameplay ideas at every turn. Honestly - and I won't blame you for your disbelief - I think this is the closest thing we've had to Half-Life 2 in years.

Media Molecule really seem to love discovering the potential of new hardware, and the way they use every unique feature the Vita has in Tearaway is brilliant. The gimmicks at their most substantial, are terrific, at their least, they're charming. My favourite game Sony have published in an entire generation, and one I recommend everyone to try.

It's not the best old game I played this year, though. GOTY 2014 OLD GAME OF THE YEAR COMING SOON

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 6 - OlliOlli

[song - Excursions - A Tribe Called Quest]

The PlayStation Vita is a confused system. Nobody’s really sure what they should do with it. Its library is full of stripped-back ports and soulless spin-offs. It’s a system that hasn’t really discovered what it’s good at. I think OlliOlli shows the kind of thing it’s brilliant for.

OlliOlli is a simple game with depth. At first glance, it could be confused for a Canabalt clone. You’re always moving, and most of the game focuses on timing jumps. But no. That’s wrong. OlliOlli is a technical game. A twitchy little thing, with flair. Surviving the levels is one thing, but it's getting the most points out of them that counts.

There’s always an argument for simplifying things in games. It’s an argument that should always be heard. Big games are full of fluff and nonsense. Upgrades and cutscenes and in-jokes. Big skateboarding games are horrible for that shit. You want to do cool skateboarding moves and the next thing you know, fucking My Name Is Earl is running you through a 10-part tutorial. OlliOlli is a simple game. X to push. Do something with the analogue stick to jump. X when you land. Levels are dead simple. Just flat surfaces, a couple of things to avoid and some ledges. That’s all you need. OlliOlli feels quick and weighty. Approaching jumps, maintaining speed and linking combos are all simple, but intricate things that can be done amateurishly or totally bloody mastered. Getting to the end of a level can seem ambitious enough for newcomers, but getting every possible point out of a level makes it worth retrying. There’s something inherently satisfying about connecting high scoring moves at speed, and always being aware of how well you’re doing - and how well you could be doing - makes it utterly compelling to retry for ages.

And that’s where the simplicity really helps the game. Big, difficult objectives in Tony Hawk’s or Skate come with lots of little bits to them, and some of those little bits are just horrible. You end up trying to find the easiest ways around them, exploiting the game’s design and doing things the developers never considered in order to make progress. In OlliOlli, you’re always working within reasonable limits. You know exactly what to do, you know exactly how to do it, and you know that you can do it.

All this simplicity might sound off-putting. I mean, skateboarding games are basically just highfalutin platformers, and Mario wouldn’t much fun without all the stuff to play around with. Mario isn’t a score attack game, though. OlliOlli works because it uses a set of predictable components throughout, gives you a simple way to use them, and challenges you to do it better than anyone else. It's instantly replayable, because you always know how you could have improved your run.

If you flubbed a landing or did a shitter trick than you intended to, it's all too easy to hit the retry button and see if you can fix it. Add some more spins and some trickier grinds. Get that gap for a longer combo. There's always options for more points. Play while watching TV or listening to music, and OlliOlli can easily eat up whole evenings. Online rankings and daily challenges keep the game feeling like an active, ongoing thing, and make it a tempting thing to load up every time you're looking through your library.

Personally, it's a little difficult to recommend OlliOlli right now, as I've been lucky enough to have a quick play of the upcoming sequel, and the things it adds to the core gameplay blow this game out of the water. It's an easy comparison to make, but it's a gap as big as Tony Hawk's 1 and 2. Imagine having to recommend the first one after you'd just played THPS2. But OlliOlli deserves its praise. It's one of snappiest and coolest little games in a long time, and one of the best games to come out this year.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 7 - Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails

[song - The Beatles - Leave My Kitten Alone]

Now we're talking.

Scram Kitty is a brand new idea, and it works beautifully. It's probably best to describe it as a top-down dungeon crawler with precision-based controls. You stick to walls, rolling and jumping through twisting corridors and over abstract moving machinery, shooting enemies and activating switches. At times it's Zelda. At others, Loaded or Kuru Kuru Kururin. It's impossible to really know what it is unless you've played at least a few levels of it.

It ends up feeling like something from the mid-nineties, back when totally new game ideas were still pretty common. Some ideas bring back memories of Doom or Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario 64, even though the well considered blend of these ideas feels totally unique and logically designed. Its only real drawback is that it's so hard to get your head around what it is, and how you're supposed to play it, but that's half the fun. You're always learning about your movement, and ways to get around quicker and safer. Always trying to find shortcuts around mazes, and the best opportunities to attack enemies.

Progression through the game is tied to challenges in each level. Completing a specific amount of challenges will unlock new levels, but you don't have to complete every challenge to finish the basic game. So whether you enjoy racing after the Scardey cats, fighting the Black cats' Mouse Commander bosses or searching for all the Lucky cats' pennies, you rarely feel like you're being forced to play the game in a way you don't enjoy.

The levels themselves have more substance than those you'd find in a typical dungeon crawler. You don't just find the solution to a puzzle and go to the next section. You learn entire levels and discover the mutliple uses for every surface. Much like Umihara Kawase, Scram Kitty doesn't tell the player much, but rather, has them discover things through experimentation and practice. It's a technical game, but one that hides its depth behind simple shooting and speedy platforming. It's nice that Scram Kitty is a new IP, and it's exciting to welcome something like this coming out of nowhere, but there's tons of potential to these mechanics. I'd enthusiastically welcome a sequel.

It's very rare to find a game that feels this fresh, but this well constructed. There's precision and weight to the movement that makes exploration and combat deeply satisfying. It's definitely learned from some great games, but great games could do with taking some influence from Scram Kitty. This is a masterclass in taking old ideas and using them intelligently to create something that stands up by itself. If you ever find yourself bored by the games industry, you've got to play Scram Kitty to remind yourself why you love it.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 8 - Hyrule Warriors

[song - Birthday Cake - Cibo Matto]

What a weird thing Hyrule Warriors is. Simultaneously, a spin-off of two radically different franchises, taking the gameplay from the less popular one, and the story and setting from the one with the less defined story and setting. Maybe the weirdest thing about it, is everybody who's played it seems to agree it's pretty cool.

Hyrule Warriors isn't a Zelda game. It's Dynasty Warriors. You ought to know that, but some people still seem surprised by how unlike Zelda it is. It's not a close, personal adventure through a fantastical, intricate world. It's a daft war game on big, wide battlefields, fighting hundreds of identical enemies. Dynasty Warriors has long been misunderstood by the mainstream. They assume it's a game about the combat, and complain about the lack of depth. It's not. It's straight-forward base acquisition. It's like a third-person version of The Bitmap Brothers' "Z".

Combat is basic. There's diverse combos, but you can get away with not playing around with any of them. It's designed like that because your attention is always split, between the close combat of your character, and the events of the wider battlefield. You could be fucking rattling away on some cunt, but it doesn't matter if your allies are getting pumped elsewhere.

That's what makes the game's pomp and bombast so appreciated. The repetitive combat could get tedious if it was boring to look at, but it's not. It's all about big flashy special moves and killing a million pricks at once. And they're Zelda pricks! Your favourite kind!

That's the thing. It's Dynasty Warriors. You kind of have to be alright with what Dynasty Warriors is to like it. But Dynasty Warriors is about looking at the big picture. And it's a picture of a Zelda game. You may be pushing A a lot, but why is that such a bad thing when it's the button that makes Darunia punch Girahim?

Hyrule Warriors is crass and cheesy, and that's pretty refreshing for a series covered in regal splendour and sacred ruins. Seeing all these stuffy characters going daft, sending out giant energy beams into whole armies feels like a great big war party. You don't sit and consider this. You jump in and roll about in it.

I don't want to play up the strategy angle too much, because there's not much strategy to it. You follow orders and take over bases until you have to run back to defend something. That's pretty much all the thinking you have to do, but it develops an oddly relaxing pace, and it allows the battlefields to grow pretty huge. It's an ideal game for off-TV play, just to chisel away at the wealth of content while something's running in the background. There's a need for games like this, and Hyrule Warriors serves that purpose brilliantly.

[87th]

GOTY 2014 - Number 9 - Sayonara Umihara Kawase

[song - Sunny Day - Laugh and Beats]

If you're going to listen to my opinions about videogames, you should know one thing about me. I love rough, modest, finnicky games. Kororinpa and Mr Domino and that. Weird little games that are strictly designed around abstract mechanics, and teach the players by having them bounce off the walls until they figure out what works. Understanding that, it shouldn't be any surprise that I really love, respect, and sort of fear Sayonara Umihara Kawase.

This is a game for us weirdos. People who aren't daunted by titles like that. People who are fine with rough graphics and doujinshi-level character design. People who look at a game with an all-schoolgirl cast of playable characters, and all-unexplained walking fish cast of baddies, and are cool with that. With me so far?

Umihara Kawase is a platformer that gives you a fishing rod. You can grab on to surfaces with it, and fling your character to new platforms. You run slow and your jumps are short, so you really have to rely on that fishing line to get around the abstract, blocky levels. Momentum, angle and distance all play a huge role in the gameplay, but it's not something you can hope to study. You have to develop a feel for it. That's just the sort of game this is.

At face value, the game appears insultingly short. A confident player who knows what they're doing can expect to get through each level within a couple of minutes, and there's not many of them in the main game, but secrets add more than double the number of levels, and unlocking them is trickier and more technical than anything the base game.

Experimenting with slopes and flinging yourself in strange directions can reveal shortcuts or hidden exits, but they can also send you flying into instant death, erasing all the work you've put into getting where you were. Experimenting can be panicky, stressful work, but your successes feel incredibly rewarding. At times it feels like the game wasn't designed to be completed, so when you discover something that works, you feel like a genius.

There's a distinct atmosphere to the game. There's something to its rough, awkward menus and soft colour palette that feels definitively Japanese, in a way that's been forgotten. Like cheap, early nineties anime, or packaging for unofficial Super Famicom merchandise. It's unfashionable, and intentionally disposable, but there's a sweetness and sincerity to it that's hard to describe, and I fucking dig it.

Sayonara Umihara Kawase is the kind of game that people say never gets made anymore. The fact is, they do. They're just weird, overpriced eShop exclusives that never get talked about. If you're weird enough to be into this stuff, you ought to get all over this.