#bit.trip runner

[stoic--rose]

he is only a man

[vebbex]

i can't believe i haven't came up with this idea until now

[teshief]

is anyone else excited for RERUNNER?

[wigc]

'BIT.TRIP RERUNNER' Review: CommanderVideo Remixed

Hard to believe that it's already been some 13 years since CommanderVideo made a splash on WiiWare with the fourth BIT.TRIP entry, BIT.TRIP RUNNER. A lot has happened since, including the launch of no less than two... wait. No, three sequels, except BIT.TRIP RERUNNER is a remake of the original, complete with a fully functional built-in level editor. Excited yet? Well, you should be!

Continue reading

[stoic--rose]

well shit this just looks like the mingrawn timbletot from runner3 to me

Once again I exist just outside the trending Tumblr media but seeing that circus guy with the eyes and teeth unlocked this one from the deep depths of my brain and I'm like hm

[syrupspinner]

i beat BIT.TRIP Runner & BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

even reading those titles makes me winded, let alone all this running

so I've been into indie games since the 3ds. this, cave story, and riskys revenge were foundational games for me to discover. the thing is, this is the only one of those I never beat. yeah, I beat ballos but not... whatever the final boss of this is. if I remember right, I got frustrated at needing to repeat a really long stage because I kept missing one gold (on replay, I can tell you it was before the gauntlet)

revisiting it, it's hard to say that young me was wrong? the stages are designed around being musical, right. it has a shallow and improvisational tone to it, and I feel like the foundation was built on better by future not-rhythm games like geometry dash and harmoknight. the stages here are a bit repetitive, and I recognise the stylistic importance of emulating a looping chorus, but it still feels kinda lame having a level that feels like playing a much shorter level 3 times in a row.

the controls are a bit strange in my opinion too. the steam release tells you to use a controller, but I think that feels worse than kbm. space is jump, and every other action maps really cleanly to the arrow keys. on the controller it gets more spread out... down is still duck, but you can't hit left to kick. you've gotta hit y or... right trigger? since you hit up to spring and A to jump, everything feels weirdly split up. this is a bit of a nitpick, since there's always the keyboard, it just kinda stuck with me.

another minor issue I had was the art style. it's hard to tell what's in the foreground and what's in the background sometimes. it's fine with stationary obsticales, but with stuff like fireballs and blockable beats it's really easy to not register them. the scrolling is what gets me, especially with the obstacles are the same coloured voxels as the backgrounds. at least its tolerable in this one, spoilers

the game wasn't bad, mind you. none of this ruined my enjoyment. first of all, the foundation is solid, y'know? it's a fun little musical autorunner. it's too short for any of the issues to really matter that much anyway, which sounds a bit backhanded, but I appreciate a game that knows it's length. im not sure how easily I'd recommend it to someone, but I didn't have a bad time. if you've got a low spec laptop and need something to kill time on a train ride, it's kinda perfect.

oh yeah, perfection! I like how this game handles collection and death. the game uses gold to show the best way to handle things and reward good reaction time. like, the gold above the springy enemies shows you that bouncing on them is better than trying to jump over them, and the gold paths above springs are missable if you're just holding up, showing you that it's a good habit to try and time things more specifically. it's a great way to bolster player skills and reward good gameplay.

deaths too! indie games in the 10s were great with respecting the players mistakes. it's already bad enough that you didn't win, you don't need to introduce a punishment. to use psychological terms, death in a video game is arguably a negative punishment because the player loses their progress, in addition of not receiving the expected reward of success. additional punishments, like inventory loss, make it really easy to alienate the player with a perceived disproportionate reaction.

(as an aside, there are exceptions. this assumes a linear path that death prevents the player from advancing through, so Minecraft uses inventory loss well because resource collection replaces linear traversal as the players main goal)

but this game uses this in a pretty interesting way. when you die, you watch commander video fly back to the start instead of just respawning. this emphasizes to the player that they have a lot to redo, which turns a negative punishment (which is the removal of something, like keeping a kid from watching tv for a week) into a positive punishment (by introducing a punishment, such as writing lines) by making a show of what the player has to repeat. in my opinion, this transformative approach to punishing mistakes is a great way to avoid making the player feel like punishment isn't disproportionate while making sure death is still a big deal. it's balanced really well!

runner2 is pretty much just the same game, so everything i said applies here too. the only thing is that i think everything that was added to iterate on the previous game ends up exacerbating my problems with the gameplay

there's still no sense of rhythm. in an actual rhythm game, like rhythm heaven, if you know enough about music then you can effectively predict where a song's gonna go and anticipate the proper input. the way the bgm builds up to each buhbum-bum-bum in rhythm rally is a great example of this, where the music builds up to the input the same way every time so it gives your brain a clue to prepare for it. since the backing track and the musical sfx are designed to be interchangeable, where you can swap level tracks and it still works, the entire game ends up being ractive instead of predictive.

this is bad for a rhythm game, but at least manageable in the first game. runner2 does a lot to help that be just incongruent enough to ruin your fun. runner1 starts with more of a chiptune tracks that builds to a more instrumental track throughout the level, but runner2's default is already hi-fi, which makes things feel so samey already. another way this hurts is that foreground and background objects are less distinct, since theyre modeled in the same artstyle, especially considering the parallax scrolling makes the travel at the same speed. the backgrounds are distracting in general too, theres always some weird shit begging to be looked at instead of the threats.

there's also a lot of forced replayability. theres a mechanic where if you wanna unlock extra characters/costumes, you need to play though most of a world, and then unlock a side level that activates key powerups, and then backtrack to previous levels and play them again to take alternate routes. maybe its just cuz i was bit.tripped out by the end of this marathon, but im not willing to do that all again. it sucks because this and the side levels you unlock (with alternate routes that also make you replay the level, cmon guys) make up like 30% of the game. and thats not even getting into shit like those game cartridges.

remember how i said the first game was well balanced with showing you the level you completed when you die? well now its unbalanced by how sick youre gonna be of every level once you play all of them a second time, and thats assuming you never died. by the end, missing gold just made me sigh and think "fuck it, i dont care anymore, i just wanna be done" which never happened with runner1. i guess the lesson here is that you shouldnt make your side content feel like a chore. you dont get to play fun new optional levels, you have to replay old levels if you want 100%.

commandgirlvideo is a baddie though so sequel wins

no but seriously. the sequel is just a longer and more repetitive version of runner1. its just bloated with extra levels and forced repetition if you want 100%, but skipping that makes it feel too short.

im not playing runner3, it seems ever more visually noisy and i do not fuck with those camera angles

[chalkodareal]

ANYWAYS. ur scott the woz posting has reminded me i have not watched him in a whole while. Imiss him hes funnay. Idont really follow the lore i just like his videos. I really like his wii videos for some reason

thank you..... i get it i didnt follow the lore proper for years. i GET the wii videos though his videos on the wii have always been a little mystical to me because i never had a wii growing up but so many others did so he talks about all of this stuff like its kind of like. a given. because for so many people it is. the wii had a really specific aesthetic too and its always been interesting to me AGAIN as someone that was never a wii owner. i had a fucking wii u.

[brian-astropixels]

BIT TRIP RUNNER GOT A REMAKE ON STEAM WITH A LEVEL EDITOR AND EVERYTHING

PLAY IT OR I'LL KICK UR ASS store.steampowered.com/app/2222540/...

[lostplay]

Game 49: BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

The Bit Trip series has always been a franchise that has delighted me ever since it's Wiiware days. The series took simple concepts, and ran with them to make really high intense rhythm game fun. Runner2, unfortunately, is not that simple aspect of a rhythm game put to runner form. In a lot of ways, Runner 2 feels like it's trying to do way too much at once while not letting the player, difficulty, or characters breath.

I think anyone familiar with this series should know that these games are far too hard to actually complete, but for the rest of you, keep your sanity and don't complete these games. Bit.Trip series has always been a very demanding beast of a challenge, and while I can say Runner2 isn't as challenging as it's Wiiware counterparts, it certainly doesn't slouch at giving far too much to handle else where. The game sports a ridiculous amount of levels per world. Roughly, each world gives about 10 levels to go through just to get to the end, with an additional 5ish levels to unlock. Add in the extra paths to take, the ability to perfect these levels by collecting everything, getting bullseyes, skipping checkpoints, and just getting a higher score through some dancing and you really get a bloated mess of content. You get plenty of unlockable skins, levels, and characters to get, and the acknowledgement that you did all this, but at a certain point it feels more like a time sink than something fun you are enjoying. This game is a completionist's nightmare, and you are absolutely better off just getting what you get and moving on.

What's perhaps more upsetting though is just how difficult this game is to learn. A lot of the game is taught to you through world 1 and half of world 2, and I will say that these are the hardest levels in the game due to the sheer amount of information you have to process, the limited time you have to execute said actions, and the game never really stopping so you could just enjoy the levels. I understand the first worlds are meant to teach players the basics, but when the rest of the worlds are simply harder variants of the previous world it makes the rest of the game feel lacking of any real challenge. Not everything needs to be introduced in the beginning, and by doing so you make all the difficulty bundled up in a spot that should be reserved for players liking your game more. I was honestly confused going through world 3 as I wasn't having nearly a difficult time with it because I already faced everything that made the game hard.

Runner2 really feels like it wants to be this funny little indie title that has a lot of whimsy to it, but I can't just help feel like it lacked far more personality than it was trying to come across. As the second game in the series, I was lost at the beginning with what was happening, but as I finished the game, it effectively amounted to nothing. Sure, we are trying to get Commander Video back to the big fight, but a lot of the cutscenes and dialogue is just "we are here now", and gave us next to nothing of the character. I'm not really asking for a bit thing here either, just some sort of personality for the main protag, proper stakes involved, just something to get the player invested. Heck, just having the bosses mention a few little bits of dialogue or given more musical weight would have been enough. What we get though, is just a whole lot of running, and not a lot of personality.

Bit. Trip's original appeal was it's simplicity, and with the way the Runner series is now, I just feel like it became too bloated. Like a writer telling you all their ideas before publishing a book, or filling up on bread before dinner arrives. Runner2 certainly isn't a bad game, but it's also widely unappealing. The art direction is a bit all over, the characters are just kinda there, difficulty is out of wack, and the game just demands a lot of attention. If you do give Runner2 your time, I just suggest you enjoy the run rather than kill yourself for perfection.

[eddiethedead]

ran bit.trip rerunner after 5 decades

[moinbeet]

BIT.TRIP RUNNER

BIT.TRIP © Gaijin Games and Choice Provisions

[mr42]

Instead of replaying no more heroes, I have decided to play some on the indie games refferenced in travis strikes again. Here is what I am playing/played.

Here is the list any suggestions

2064: Read Only Memories

Absolver

The American Dream

Ape Out

Bit.Trip Runner

Blazing Chrome

Brawlout

Children of Zodiarcs

Crossing Souls✅️

Dandara

Dead Cells

De Mambo

Disco Elysium

Double Kick Heroes

Downwell

Earth Atlantis

Enter the Gungeon

Fallen Legion✅️

Floor Kids

Furi

Galak-Z

Gods Will Be Watching

Golf Story

Hatoful Boyfriend

High Hell

Hollow Knight

Hotline Miami✅️

Hyper Light Drifter

Just Shapes & Beats

Luftrausers

The Messenger

Minit

Morphie’s Law

Mother Russia Bleeds

Mulaka

Nuclear Throne

Papers, Please

Pato Box

Pikuniku

Pocket Rumble

The Red Strings Club

Reigns

Ruiner

Salt and Sanctuary

The Stanley Parable

SteamWorld Dig 2

Stifled

Superhot

The Swords of Ditto

Thumper

Treachery in Beatdown City

Undertale✅️

VA-11 HALL-A

Wargroove

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG

[mahoulover]

"Do you will restore your world to peace? Never!" - Oyajide.

"Goodbye, Sonic X Shadow Generations..." (but Shadow Generations still appears in this bundle with new content)

Sonic REGenerations is re-remake of 2011's project Sonic Generations, 2nd bundle of Generations and 3rd title of Generations sub-series.

New Legacy Era appeared as starts from Sonic Rush to Sonic Unleashed, Modern Era starts from Sonic Colors-onwards.

In Sonic REGenerations - Cream, Espio, Charmy and Vector never appears this time in the re-remake (Amy and Knuckles appear as NPC, Silver appears only in Rival Battle Boss and not in cutscenes). It features new choosable and multiplayer playable characters as Alex, Katie and Rooney (Act 2 only) alongside Modern and Classic Sonic (new Act 1 multiplayer character Virtual Sonic but Classic Sonic version). New levels and more. Every main Sonic 5 kids and Mighty appears as NPC and entire soundtrack of this story has re-arranged like Sonic Colors Ultimate. Voice cast has replaced as Modern Sonic by Ben Schwartz, Both Tails' by Ashleigh Ball, Knuckles by Idris Elba and more. Movie Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and Legacy Sonic (Jason Griffith, archive clips on all languages) is new playable characters (not skins). Engine changed to Hedgehog Engine 2.

In Shadow Generations - Marle is new playable character via choosable and co-op. Levels from Classic Sonic titles is now appears and more new content. Shadow is redubbed by Keanu Reeves. Movie Shadow (same v. a. from v. g. counterpart) is no longer as skin and now separate playable character alongside Shadow and Marle also Rival Battle boss of Modern Era.

"Zip, Zap, Zoo! We choose YOU!! Magical problems, can't delay!" - Mahou Cross Generations is a new story in this bundle. The main playable characters is Doremi Harukaze from Ojamajo Doremi, True from True and the Rainbow Kingdom, Abby Hatcher from the show of same name and Kaori Nishino (not "Popuri" and Potpourri" anymore due same names (speech) in PreCure series) from Fun Fun Pharmacy. Oyajide returns to revenge and preparing to conquer the whole world with Amane and Greta-san (from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar), Doremi and friends must stop Oyajide, Amane and Greta-san from conquering with their rhythm, wishery, fuzzly and spirit powers. A new magical adventure awaits. Gameplay mechanics inspired of BIT.TRIP RUNNER series and Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Wonder Effects).

Also features a new mode - Challenge Mode. Alex, Sonic, Katie and Rooney visiting in two stories as Shadow Generations and Mahou Cross Generations (Bosses set as hard difficulty, collection keys and rank system will be removed).

Note: In this game, Score system will be removed.

[danifart]

so i bought the bit.trip runner remake and like. this isn't half bad. like they added enough to the game that it was sort of worth the $21 i spent on it

[dj-cublex]

CUBLEX'S STEAM DECK RATINGS

A variety of game ratings for games I've tried that Steam currently doesn't have a rating for, and why I chose them

Absconding Zatwor - Playable! You have to hold down the right touchpad and slide your thumb around for movement, and if there's anything else you do I'm unaware of it because this game isn't good

Ascent - Playable! Gameplay is just the D-Pad (perfect!) but menu isn't controller navigatable. Right touchpad works great for this.

Binaries - Verified! It just works. Simple platformer, makes sense.

BIT.TRIP VOID - Unsupported. Crashes on bootup. The other original BIT.TRIPs probably do this too, considering BEAT and RUNNER are Steam classed as Unsupported. Another point for the Vita!

CROSSNIQ+ - Unsupported. Boots into the Unity "select your resolution and quality" thingy, and trying to confirm your options and get to the game doesn't work as for some reason the mouse cursor refuses to go low enough to actually press the confirm button.

Ekstase - Verified! Again, it just works. Menus can be a little odd, but I've been able to navigate with controller only. If it gives you issue, right touchpad's your guy.

Velocibox - Playable! And if you usually play the game on stick anyway, it's Verified! (D-pad doesn't work by default, but you can definitely configure it to do so.)

Vividlope - Playable! ALMOST Verified, but none of the resolution options fit the screen without letterboxing. Everything else is perfect, and I'm not picky, but that's how it is.

You Have 10 Seconds 3 - Verified! Simple game controlwise, so it makes sense.

I'll probably edit/update this post later down the line to add more. Most of these are good games, so I recommend trying em out!

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 18

February - March 2025

Alrighty! We're early into April right now, and I figured it'd be a good time to go ahead and write up my thoughts on what I played the last few months! I didn't play much in February cause I was distracted with Fantasian, but I ended up getting through a LOT during March! So without further ado, let's get into it!

You already know, these aren't reviews, just my thoughts, please play anything I talk about if it interests you!

Halo 2 (November 9, 2004) - Xbox

YAY HALO TIME YAY YAY!! Me and my sister have slowly started making our way through the co-op campaigns of the series, and while we started Halo 2 last year we only recently finally managed to beat it.

In my opinion, though I really enjoyed Halo 1, Halo 2 kind of knocks it out of the water. There's not a crazy reveal like with the flood or anything, you kind of already know what's up until the finale. But the overall quality is just so high in comparison to the first. Dual wielding rules, proper sound mixing, ACTUAL SUBTITLES! We finally could properly understand what was happening in this game! Also, getting to play as the Arbiter kicks ASS! I love games with opposing stories and my only complaint is that they don't really cross over in a satisfying way until the end. I would've loved a Master Chief vs Arbiter boss battle, but alas. It has a lot of the same praises as the first though, fun alien designs (I liked the introduction of the brutes and the weird bugs), beautiful set pieces (LOVED the last arbiter level on that beach), and a FANTASTIC ost. The ost in this one blows Halo 1 out of the water. I loved the licensed music, the Mjolnir mix obviously kicks ass. But particularly I REALLY liked the use of drums in this soundtrack, im not a music expert so idk how to describe it, but it has a tropical feel to it that I think is so unique for music in a sci-fi shooter. My favorite songs were Follow and Peril :) This game ruled, man. I can't wait to see where Halo 3 takes it.

I don't really have too many complaints off the top of my head. I think there's still some issues with getting lost on maps, I just think some sort of map or quest marker could really help. Though it's considerably easier to navigate than halo 1 was, but we still found ourselves getting stuck in some rooms with seemingly no way to go. There were also some odd visual bugs by the end of the game, but that's certainly the 360's fault and not the game. Some games just don't make the transition good, but you would expect them to iron out stuff on their flagship series. Uh... I think that's all I got... It's weird there's no run button?

The plot is getting juicer, the characters are thicker, the gameplay feels better, the score is goated. Halo 2 rules! Also... Gravemind... ahaha.... omg gravemind...

BIT.TRIP BEAT - FLUX (March 16, 2009 - February 25, 2011) - Switch

With the announcement they're sunsetting gold points on Nintendo Switch, I went through and claimed all the points I could (which were not a lot I didn't realize they expire lmao... cool) but I was able to grab a few games for free. Namely, the whole BIT.TRIP series. For free. So that's cool! Previously I had only played Runner, but never beat it. But I remembered when these games were coming out, and they felt like pretty big name indie titles I hadn't really tried. So I figured, why not?

I'll just give a basic run down on my thoughts for each:

Beat: Very fun, I liked playing motion control pong. That final boss is deviously brutal though. It's fun, but like, not fun enough for the time investment to get good at those frame perfect hits against it, yknow?

Core: Neat! Felt the most like a rhythm game. I don't really remember much about this one but it's cool.

Void: Potentially my favorite concept, playing as a void and eating blocks to become bigger and bigger and knowing when to compress yourself to make it through obstacles. But for some reason this one felt not great to play, I can't describe why. It felt, ice physics-y??? Kind of frustrating.

Runner: The most game like of the bunch and probably my favorite? It's where the music really starts to shine, this is the only one with songs that REALLY stick with me personally. It's fun, but one hit point can be pretty annoying when the levels get particularly long.

Fate: What probably should've been my favorite, seeing as how it's a shmup. But something about it just feels kind of tedious. I couldn't make it past the penultimate boss and just lost interest and decided to move on. I like the different bullet types, but honestly giving commander video a group of friends which include Super Meat Boy and a girl commander video. It feels corny in a way I'm not super vibing with.

Flux: Weirdly enough I barely remember anything about this one except it goes back to being really weird after Runner became kind of random (derogatory). It's cool that the gameplay ends where it begins though. Neat.

Overall BIT.TRIP is cool but my general consensus is that when the levels get really long, the gameplay feels kind of tedious. But I respect the hell out of it for being so weird. Neat stuff.

Spyro the Dragon (September 9, 1998) - Playstation

Would you believe me if I told you that I, the huge fan of dragons and platformers, have never played the dragon platformer before? It just kinda slipped by me. I don't think I had a copy of it as a kid, and if I did. Idk I just never really got into it. BUT ALL THAT CHANGED THIS YEAR!! And the verdict is?

Yeah it's cool. Spyro is a very fun game, it feels great to play even now, it looks wonderful and really bright and cheery, it's got nice environments, cute music, a fun premise, and a dragon as the main character! I like Spyro a lot I think it's very cool and unique that he's a quadraped when most platformer characters are bipedal. His powers are all simple but really fun, gliding in particular was really cool and I liked how big maps could get because of this ability. I didn't really hit many roadblocks while playing it, it's cute, I really like the high fantasy dragon aesthetic. I don't really know what else to say, there's not much to NOT like about it. It's simple, but effective!

But it's not perfect. Particularly, I think the bosses in this game suck. The first boss, I thought it was a regular enemy, I didn't even realize it was a boss cause there's no fanfare for beating it! Similarly the final boss just blows. I was not a fan of doing those races against Gnorc (awesome name btw). I didn't like super dashes, the game is obsessed with them but I didn't like them doing them. I didn't have to grind for the gems the whole game but going back and grinding for them to reach the final world was a drag. The last dragon in the racist level fucking sucked. Why do all platformers from this era have a racist level for no reason?

But regardless of that. This game was fun, and aside from that, has aged really well! I'm genuinely interested to see where it goes from here! I actually do already have Spyro 2 and 3 so I'll be sure to keep you all posted on when I play them!

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (November 6, 1997) - Playstation

But not just one PS1 platformer, BUT THAT SECOND PS1 PLATFORMER! I'm back in action with Crash Bandicoot once again after playing Crash 1 for the first time last year. And true to my word, I actually played it physically on my PS3, neat!

This game is a BIG step up from the first in my opinion. Feels nicer, looks better, has a lot more level types, I liked the plot, it introduces Coco (even though she's barely used she's cute so I like her), I like the music I like the aesthetic (there were some gorgeous levels this time around like a night time jungle level idr the name of). Overall it was just a very cool game that I again don't really have too much to say about. I liked the bosses, there was something about the hub area that I really liked. I like that we already are teaming up with Cortex in the second game, that's cool. Yeah it was neat!

My only real complaints are that the final boss kinda sucks. I couldn't beat it at all until I realized that I just had to never leave Cortex alone and suddenly it was the easiest fight ever, even though right before that there's a big boss against N. Gine who has a brand new mechanic and is a way crazier fight. Odd.

Yeah I feel like I had even less to say about this than Crash 1. It's a good game! I do think it's leagues better than the first. Crash is a cool guy, I'm interested to see how the original trilogy wraps up with Crash 3, and how I'll feel about it in comparison to Spyro when all is said and done.

One Strike (November 3, 2017) - Switch

Here's another game I got for free using my emergency Gold Points. I got it just cause it was so cheap and the concept of a 1-hit KO fighting game seemed novel if nothing else.

But to my surprise this game RULES! Like, seriously rules it kicks ASS! a 1-hit fighting game might sound a little basic and boring, but it's actually such a stressful and fun game and probably my favorite thing I've gotten with my gold points so far. Each character has a strike, a block, a back dash, and some unique gimmick to themselves. It's so simple but so effective. My favorite character was Oni, who is slow and has a special strike that's even slower, but can break through blocks. He rules. I also think Soujiro is interesting, and Kenji. But I barely remember what they do not cause MY BOY ONI IS ALL THAT MATTERS!

My only complaint is that, imo, and this is so mean. This game is kind of ugly looking. I know that's harsh and usually not something I'd pick on a game for but while there's nothing objectively wrong with the pixel art and the css art I just couldn't get into the style of the game at all. Aside from some of the environments, I just found the game to be really ugly looking. But, the sequel, which I am INSANELY interested in now. Has an INCREDIBLY strong and cool art style.

So yeah, this game was a shining success. I can't wait to play it with friends, and I will absolutely be trying the DLC characters and I will ABSOLUTELY be trying the sequel when I get the chance! Awesome stuff!

Be Brave, Barb (March 11, 2025) - Mobile

Another day, another Thomas K Young banger! This is actually the first game of his I played on phones aside from the Fowlst games. I apologize Young, I hope that the ad revenue helps fund you as much as buying the game does! I was a touch bit broke when I played this haha.

Be Brave Barb is a game where you play as a cactus who can walk on walls, and will always walk forward, you just make her jump. But the neat part is that the wall she stands on becomes her new standard of gravity. It's cool and remarkably tricky at times! But overall the game is cute, I love Barb's design, I really like the music with the weird little voices singing in some of the levels. The plot is cute, with Barb needing to find pages from her positive affirmations journal, they're meant to be silly but some of them were genuinely nice and I'm still thinking about even now. Overall it's just another fun game! Plain and simple.

My only issues are level length and bosses. Level length can be an issue for particularly long levels, since you have to wait for Barb to walk places on her own, dying in one hit really late into a long level can be a MASSIVE time sink. Overall the levels are pretty straight forward and very creative, but sometimes they can be confusing (or at least confused me) on how a jump will land from a certain angle and stuff like that. For the bosses, I felt like they were a little basic. I still feel like there's something more interesting you could do with the boss battles in this game, the final boss ended up being the best one imo.

BUT YEAH, this is another simple but fun adventure. I really do love everything this dev makes and I will always be there day 1 to play their stuff. AND NEXT TIME, I PROMISE I'LL HAVE BETTER MONEY TO BUY THE GAME PROPER!!

Neodori Forever (June 15, 2022) - Switch

Another game I got for free using gold points, I'm always up for a good car game. Even if I tend to be kind of bad at more arcadey ones. This one just looked really nice and I got it for free so who am I to complain?

And yeah! This is a very cool game! It looks GREAT, I think the low poly graphics are really put to good use here with saturated colors and nice environments. And levels that take place at night just look even prettier, it's great looking! It also has a really good sound track, a ton of cars you can unlock, and a lot of modes. You really get some bang for your buck here! I mainly stuck to Odyssey, which is the main story mode where you make your way through random levels and beat npcs in races. It's fun!

But for some reason I just never got used to the gameplay. Driving itself feels fine but drifting feels SO weird and specific to me. However, I'm almost certain this is a skill issue and not an issue with the game. Like there's something I just can't understand but I want to understand so bad cause I can tell this game kicks ass. Oh well, even with my struggles, I was still able to finish the Odyssey mode, so it's no big deal. My other main complaint is that npc drivers are fucking morons and only appear when I'm drifting on the wrong side of the road (their fault not mine) or on top of items I want to collect. Very annoying

But yeah regardless of my inability to play, this was a fun game, especially for free. Glad I stuck with it, cool stuff!

Astro's Playroom (November 12, 2020) - PS5

HOLY SHIT, GREEN PLAYING A PS5 GAME!?!?! If you can believe it, yeah! It's not mine, and I won't have access to it for very long most likely. But a family member got a PS5 which means for a short time, I have access to PS4/PS5! Neat! I don't have many games but the PS5 comes preinstalled with a free tech demo game, and I've wanted to play Astro Bot for a minute now so of course I was so excited to try this one out!

AND YEAH, IT RULES! I'm blown away this was a free game that came preinstalled on the console. I probably would've paid money for this game but thankfully I didn't have to cause that made the experience all the better. Astro's Playroom is a small 3D platformer where you jump around 4 worlds inspired by different aspects of your PS5 to get a better understanding of what roles each component play in the console. Your GPU has monkeys in it, for example. Really educational stuff! But in all seriousness, this is a REALLY fun and legit platformer, no nonsense here. It feels great, looks amazing (like seriously good looking), has a wonderful soundtrack, it's super cute and fun and bright I LOVE the bots. And I'm particularly impressed with how well it shows off what the controller can do, it's like Nintendo Land in that kind of way. You have to make use of every aspect of the PS5 controller to beat the game, from the touch pad to gyro to the microphone! I LOVED this! I also loved all the references to PS1 stuff, which I know only gets better in Astro Bot, but I didn't expect it in this one so it was a pleasant surprise. My favorites were the astrobots worshipping and fangirling over the Buster Blade, and the final boss. Which is a GENIUS final boss and a reference I didn't get at first (I was still pretty young when PS1 was new lol) but is SUCH a genius pull for a final boss to this game. Stuff like this, getting to look at all these peripherals, and pulling back really obscure random characters from tech demos or scrapped mascot designs almost makes me feel like Sony is the best as making goofy celebrations of their past.

My only real issues with it, while I did really like these sections. The scenes where you get into suits like the monkey, the frog, stuff like that. They're fun, but they're not more fun than Astro Bot and sometimes I felt like their sections lasted a little long, but I wouldn't want them removed! They're still fun! I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for stuff to complain about lol. It's a free tech demo there's not much to complain about! I guess I do wish that there was maybe more stuff to read in the levels about how your PS5 works and where you are in the PS5. I know it's fictional and the PS5 doesn't ACTUALLY have this stuff inside, but it could be a fun more in depth learning opportunity. I'd LOVE to know more about how the console works beyond a gameplay level, yknow? Am I being a nerd?

Anyway, this game RULED! I can totally see myself 100% completing it, and I actually do also have Astro Bot proper, so when I get the chance I'm jumping RIGHT into that! This was such a fun experience and I cannot believe the Switch 2 will also have a tech demo that takes place inside the console. And you have to pay for it and it comparatively looks way less cool. But I guess it's have the teaching aspect be more of a focus. But I don't care, NERDS!!

Donkey Kong (June 14, 1994) - Gameboy

And last but not least, is DK 94! When this was announced to be coming to NSO, people FREAKED OUT! I saw just about everyone I follow popping of for this. And I thought "the... gameboy DK arcade game? Really?" And I knew it wasn't a straight up port of the original, but still. How could it possibly be THAT good that everyone's freaking out? So I had to give it a shot.

AND YEAH I GET IT! This is the BEST of the DK Arcade games, in my opinion (I haven't played Mario vs Donkey Kong). I'm seriously impressed with this game! Maybe I'm overreacting but it felt like a game made nowadays to feel like a gameboy game, but they massively overestimated what the GB was capable. But it's not that, it's a real GB game doing the work! The sprites look great and are readable, there are cutscenes that are fun and really well done, the music is AMAZING! The gameboy had NO BUSINESS putting out a song as good as "Showdown at the Tower". The levels are all fun, it feels snappy and smooth to play (it may be one of the best feeling platformers on the console??? Maybe?) And there's a ton of interesting stuff, I didn't know DK Jr was gonna be in it (I know he's on the cover be nice to me), I didn't expect the final boss at all which was really cool. This game totally whips ass! I'm blown away, y'all were right!

My only complaints are that some of the levels can feel a little samey, like there's nothing too crazy in some of them. And I'd almost prefer less levels in some worlds so they can really make them more unique. Some of the levels were also particularly confusing and sometimes felt too complicated or way too easy. I only had to look up solutions to one or two, but when I did I felt so stupid lmao. Also, it just occured to me they totally should've put in a level recreating the Game and Watch DK game! Nevermind 0/10 trash game.

No but seriously, this was a blast, I'm pleasantly surprised! I know Mario vs DK is supposed to be WAY less cool, but I may still give it a shot cause this game was so much fun and I remember when that one was coming out lol. Also, I NEED the next Smash Bros. to axe 75m and put a stage based on this in it. With a Showdown at the Tower remix, please!?