Rating of
4/5
Pampas & Selene: The Maze of Demons
A Retro Loveletter for These Modern Times
The only things I knew about this game going forward came from my MJ local co-op partner in crime and so I knew this was a kind of homage to a somewhat obscure (at least in America) 2D platforming game called “The Maze of Galious”. It turns out there is a very dedicated game developer (looks at other review), named Francisco Téllez de Meneses aka Fran, who likes to turn old games into something new, updated and - surprisingly - very fun. While I didn't know much about his game going in, it turns out turning retro classics into a modern retro updated (including adding co-op where there was none before) game makes for something that is both nostalgic and yet made for these more modern times.
Looks and Stuff: The game utilized the …
Rating of
3.5/5
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
“Donkey Kong Classics” on the NES was the first game I ever ‘finished.’ The fact that the entire game was just three screens (that repeated indefinitely for high-score chasing) went a long way toward that momentous feat in my gaming career, as running out of lives and getting booted back to the beginning by a Game Over screen never felt like a massive loss of progress.
Flash forward to the early 2000s, and I was fiddling around with a huge collection of ROMs I had acquired, and seeing a Game Boy port of “Donkey Kong” – typically dubbed “Donkey Kong ‘94” by fans – I decided to see if the greenscale brick offered a faithful recreation of my first gaming conquest.
It did not.
Instead of a faithful recreation of …
Rating of
4.5/5
Apotheon
Sing, O Muse, the tale of Nikandreos!
Apotheon, released in 2015, has been on my radar for years. It was highly recommended by a friend of mine who, like me, studied classics at the university. I have spent much of my life in the ancient world, majoring in it as an undergraduate, earning a master’s degree in the field, and teaching Latin for the past eighteen years. Just looking at the game, I was intrigued, given its unique visual style and inspiration. Its title, for those who know Greek, is a significant hint at the plot and apotheosis of its main character. It’s unfortunate that it has taken me so long to play it, but I am finally glad that I did, removing it from my backlog.
Story (5 out of 5)
Apotheon is set in ancient Greece in the village of Dion. You, the …
Rating of
3.5/5
DiRT Rally 2.0
I played Dirt Rally 2.0 using a racing wheel in first-person bumper cam mode. I didn’t play multiplayer, as it seemed very lacking, and I also didn’t enjoy rallycross, so I didn’t spend much time on it. Over the course of my playthrough, I completed three championships in career mode: Open (1st place), Clubman (1st place), and Pro (3rd place). I unlocked the Elite class but didn’t play it, so I didn’t progress to the final class of Master. In order to move up in career mode, you need to finish 3rd or better in the championship, and since I barely got 3rd in Pro class, I didn’t care to torture myself attempting to get to Master. However, the standout experience for me was playing the historic rallies, which were by far the most …
Rating of
3.5/5
Demon's Souls Remastered
Difficult, Frustrating, and also Rewarding
Demon's Souls is a remake of a game with the same name on PS3. It's a beautiful, difficult, and rewarding game that lacks when it comes to controls and explaining things.
I had never played a game in the "Souls" series before starting this so when I began I only knew a couple things. First, the series is pretty popular and second, that it's viewed as extremely difficult. By the time I finished I understood both of these things very well.
The story of this game isn't that intriguing. In a land called Boltearia an evil presence is taking over. A fog is enveloping the area and there are evil creatures and demons strung about. Once you're in there is no escape and it appears there's a evil being making people like you kill …
