The Famicrew chat about all the games at the show!
Saturday, May 12th, 2018
Ultimate Selfy by Simatten
James: Our first BitSummit interview and game! Big ups to Shunsuke who tried his best to do it in English. The game itself….I couldn’t really see any depth here, just kind of fly around by mashing the button. Interesting style, but needs more to it!
Danny: It was kind of hard to tell what was going on in this game. On the plus side, it was super colorful, ran well and looked kinda crazy.
She Remembered Caterpillars by Jumpsuit Entertainment
James: Man, that title! Looking back, we probably could have skipped some games and played better known titles...too many games, too little time.
Danny: I actually got to play this game in handheld at the show. It’s a puzzle game where you have to lead multiple characters to goals that are spread across the levels. Of course, it’s not quite as easy as it sounds. From what I could tell, the color based characters can only go through certain areas of the level on their way to the goal. So, let’s say you had a red character that you wanted to move toward a goal. If they come into contact with a blue bridge, they won’t be able to pass. Basically, you have to maneuver the characters in specific ways to complete the puzzles. It won’t set the world on fire, but it was a fun experience.
SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption by Dark Star
James: The game is brutal. Great concept though, just a streamlined boss rush game where you “level down” as you progress! Not one for me, but Dark Souls fans are going to love it. Impressive that it runs so well on Switch for sure.
Danny: Even while playing the Switch version docked next to the same game running in 4K on a PS4 Pro, Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption still looked pretty decent on the Switch. The game takes elements from games like Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls as it has you going through bosses exclusively. And you will die. A lot. If you’re into games that require a lot of strategy and skill to take out individual enemies, this might be for you.
Above by Mighty Moth Games
James: I didn’t play it but I love the style and concept of this game, although it did look slow.
Danny: This is a arcadey take on a flight simulator where your plane plays the role of the main character. It’s easy to control and looks to have a lot of depth. If you’ve watched our developer interview, you can obviously see that I’m playing the game on the Switch, however, this was essentially a pre-alpha build of the game and the guys at Mighty Moth aren’t 100% sure if the final product will be arriving on the Switch when the game releases in early 2019. With that out of the way, the majority of the game may look like a relaxing kind of experience, but there will be monsters and other obstacles that will try to hinder your progress.
Koji Igarashi interview
James: Having never really played a Castlevania game for more than a few minutes, I was a bit apprehensive going in, but I think it turned out well! I was surprised at how low key Igarashi was! After the interview I asked him if he prefers the sword or whip, he said whip!
Ty: Look at this guy, hasn’t played Castlevania. Have you heard of video games? Real talk though, I’ve been hankering for 2D Castlevania lately and I’m glad Igarashi circumvented Konami to make it.
Danny: It’s always cool getting to meet “celebrities” like this at events. And for the record, I have played Castlevania games. Anyway, Iga was a pretty reserved kind of guy. More so than I had imagined. There was a part in our interview where, based on his intonation, he seems to be getting a little annoyed. It doesn’t really come through in the subtitles or transcript, but bonus point to those of you who can pick that out!
Goichi Suda / Suda 51 interview
James: This was so much fun to do, Suda is such a funny guy you can’t help but not like him! I even remembered to ask a wrestling question on Danny’s behalf.
Danny: Suda was a complete joy to talk to. He’s super friendly and was willing to talk about anything. Heck, even after and before the interview, our interactions with him were fun and playful.
Semblance by Nyamakop
James: This was kinda fun. Visually it reminded me of a bunch of other games, but the terraforming mechanic was a cool idea. I couldn’t even beat a couple of puzzles in the first area so I could see this getting really tricky.
Danny: Semblance is a really cool concept. Being able to change to the landscape is really cool and opens up a lot of different possibilities for the gameplay. I remain mildly interested in this one.
Juicy Realm by SpaceCan
James: This seems like a cool couch co-op game. I wish we’d both had Pro controllers because the Joy-Con Grip was not ideal.
Danny: Kudos to the publishers for tracking down another controller so that James and I could play together. This visuals here are fantastic and the twin stick gameplay was solid. Sure, I ended up killing James in our time with the game, but hey, he probably had it coming.
Dylan Cuthbert Interview
James: We have unofficially met Dylan a bunch of times at TGS, so it was nice to finally have an official recorded interview with him! There were so many questions I wanted to ask, the time seemed to fly by, but I thought it was overall a decent interview!
Danny: Sitting in on the chat with Dylan was educational. It was interesting to hear as he went over all of the different machines that he programmed for leading up to his first job in the gaming industry. Fascinating stuff here, people!
Bloodstained Curse of the Moon by Inti Creates
James: I love how I’m being dunked on in the YouTube comments about my poor skills in the game! Bring it on, I deserve it! I’m just glad we got a chance to play it. It was really popular at the show. We actually recorded the gameplay after closing time so we were lucky to play it at all! I’ve never really played a Castlevania game, so this one’s not for me, but cool that it’s a thing.
Ty: I forgot this was even a backer thing, so that’s an extremely pleasant surprise for me, especially since I love these kinda games.
Danny: The visual style and the ability to change between the four different characters on the fly seem pretty awesome. With the inexpensive price of the game, this almost seems like a no-brainer to pick up if you’re even remotely interested in Castlevania.
Sunday, May 13th, 2018
Kero Blaster by Playism
James: I had low expectations from the name and the title screen, but this ended up being really fun! Turns out it’s a phone game by Pixel, the Cave Story guy. I can only assume playing it on a touch screen must be awful, so it was nice to play it on Switch with a Pro-Con. Love the Atari-style graphics, too.
Danny: A fast action frog shooter. What else do you need, honestly?
Angels of Death by Playism
James: Another already-out phone conversion. Kinda plain looking graphics, but the story seemed interesting. Not something I’d buy, but nice to have this kind of 16-bit adventure game on Switch. Plus an anime tie-in series, WTF!?
Danny: I had no idea what I was looking at with this one. 2D horror games? I’m sure there’s a target audience for that.
Pocket Rumble by Dangen
James: Holy crap this is my bag baby! Stunning pixel art, it’s like a HD NeoGeo Pocket game! The controls are simple enough for non fighting game people like me to enjoy, plus it has the great net-code thing that Ty likes. This is one to watch, trust me on this. Day one purchase.
Danny: After watching the footage and hearing Ty talk about the accessibility of this game, Pocket Rumble seems like a game that even my scrubby ass could get in to. I’d be willing to take the plunge on this one.
The TakeOver by Dangen
James: This has been on the Famicast radar since TGS 2017, and I can see why! It looks really nice, like a super-crisp beat’ em up game from back in the day. Fans of the genre are sure to love it! *retires from gaming journalism*
Danny: I’m not super into beat ‘em ups, but I can’t deny how great the game looks and how fluid the animations are.
Iconoclasts by Dangen
James: This is one to watch, well, it’s quite easy to do that because it’s out already out on other systems, but what I mean is it’s looking great on Switch and it’s really good! A puzzle platformer with gorgeously crisp visuals and apparently a metric TON of content. Good times were had.
Ty: I love Noitu Love 2 and I’ll probably love this game when I get my hands on it. Yes, I know it’s already out...
Brave Earth by Dangen
James: This game destroyed my soul and made me cry. I got punched in the face while jumping over a hole and fell to my death. I can see why Ty would like it.
Ty: This is my most anticipated indie game and I still haven’t gotten a chance to play it. The guy behind it strikes me as being a genius mad scientist of game design and I hope this game is a big hit. Reminder: This is from the guy that made I Wanna Be The Guy.
Dark Devotion by DotEmu
James: It’s basically a 2D Souls game. You have to time your attacks and stamina to perfection or you die and lose everything. Awesome retro visuals, but not one for me! I played the PC version with an Xbox controller, but the devs said they were looking into a Switch version.
Hideki Kamiya Interview
James: Holy shit this guy is cool AF. I could feel his Twitter ban hammer hanging over my head at all times, but I think I survived. I didn’t dare tell him that the last game I owned/loved of his was Viewtiful Joe on GameCube! I should really pick up Bayo 1 + 2 on Switch! Also he liked our t-shirts!
Ty: “Kamiya was right” is a meme for a reason.
Danny: I wish I could have been there for this one, but while editing in the subtitles for our video version, it was easy to tell that Kamiya was just a joy to be around.
No comments:
Post a Comment