Playlist (February 2021) (Patreon)

Hello everyone! This is the Playlist, where I talk about three of the games I've been playing in the last month. I've been doing well to actually keep up with the new releases - let's see how long that lasts! Let's go. Watch it here, or read it below. Up to you, friendo.

Bowser's Fury

Bowser's Fury is, well, a weird thing. Super Mario 3D World got a Switch remake this month and to entice Wii U owners to shell out for the same game again, it comes with an extra mode. But it's almost nothing like the rest of Super Mario 3D World.

Closer to Mario Odyssey or even Breath of the Wild, this is an open world Mario game. It's set in a small chunk of ocean with tiny islands made up of classic Mario platforming stages. So one island might have spinning blocks over lava, another might have chutes lined with spikes. That sort of thing.

And… it works really well! I found myself utterly engrossed in the game, constantly looking around and seeing stuff that looked fun and interesting. A sort of non-stop scavenger hunt of little platforming challenges. It wasn't long before I finished the thing with all 100 shines.

There's another bit to this game: the titular Bowser's Fury. Every now and again, a massive Bowser appears, which causes lava to fall from the sky and for laser-like fire beams to sweep the stage. You can either dodge these as you keep on platforming, or turn tail and pick up a Giga Bell to grow 10 times bigger and fight Bowser in a Kaiju-esque battle.

I was less keen on this idea: it has some cool consequences like suddenly ramping up the difficulty of a challenge. But it's also kind of repetitive, random, and - when you're trying to make Bowser appear to break through special Bowser blocks - a little tedious.

But ultimately, this whole thing feels like a sort of prototype for a future Mario game. A proof of concept for a new, open-world progression system. And, going by the amount of fun I had with Bowser's Fury, I'm all for it. Highly recommended.

The Medium

The Medium is the latest horror game from Bloober Team. It's about a woman who explores an abandoned communist-era hotel in Poland, in search of answers about her past.

Just like how Bloober's game Layers of Fear was heavily inspired by PT, this one is all Silent Hill. You've got fixed camera angles, riddles, lurking nightmare monsters, and a psychological storyline. They even got the Silent Hill composer to make music.

The big feature for this game is its dual-world set-up. Protagonist Marianne exists in both the real world and the spirit world. And at times, you'll see both in split-screen. It's an interesting idea for a game but, if you ask me, it does not live up to that potential at all.

For the most part, the split screen is pretty pointless: like for cutscenes that show Marianne talking to ghosts in the spirit world and to thin air in the real world. Or for gameplay where ultimately you only need to look at one side of the screen.

There's a few instances where the two sides are used together in an interesting way, but they're few and far between. We've seen much, much more interesting uses of a dual-world set-up in games like Metroid Prime 2, A Link to the Past, and those time-travelling levels from Dishonored 2 and Titanfall 2. And none of those needed to patent the idea. Or tank the framerate.

I won't go into the story for spoiler reasons, but I'll say it's garnered some negative attention for some pretty ham-fisted approaches to serious topics like child abuse and trauma. It's also another game, like last month's Call of the Sea, where the talkative protagonist ruins a lot of the atmosphere.

Ultimately, I don't really recommend this game. I'm not sure why I stuck with it to the end. The puzzles are pretty lacklustre, there's no combat outside of bad stealth bits, there's hardly any exploration, and I didn't like any of the characters. The main thing that kept my attention was the visuals: this is a very impressive-looking game, both in the real-world, and the surreal, impressionistic, burnt-orange spirit world.

Cyber Shadow

Cyber Shadow is an NES throwback game, inspired by games like Ninja Gaiden and Contra, and it's published by Shovel Knight makers Yacht Club Games. Just like Shovel Knight, this is a game that takes what's good about classic games and updates it for the modern day.

Though: it's certainly a lot harder than Shovel Knight. That's mostly in terms of tricky level design that offers a fair challenge. But you'll also find some annoying, finicky, NES-hard difficulty spikes that can harsh your vibe. One Battletoads-esque biker bit had me questioning whether I wanted to continue with the game.

But I'm glad I did. The game's full of interesting ideas: each level explores a new mechanic, Mario style. And you're always getting new powers so by the end of the game you have a pretty large moveset to play with. I also enjoyed the boss fights, which have fun patterns to memorise and then exploit.

Cyber Shadow won't have the staying power of Shovel Knight, I don't think. That game really caught lightning in a bottle, and you can't do that twice. But I certainly enjoyed my time with it and would easily recommend it for anyone who likes a challenge.