Review: Scarygirl

Scarygirl, a game I didn’t even know existed until the day it came out, seemed like it had  a lot of potential. The flash game and cartoon strips it is based on presents a pretty unique world with some really cool designs. How does the first full Scarygirl game hold up? Well…just check out my review and see for yourself.

Please leave any and all comments for this review on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

New Game+: Making one giant leap for mankind

This month’s New Game+ focuses on a game I just can’t seem to shut up about, To the Moon. There is still so much more to say about this little gem, but a lot of it falls under the spoiler territory. Someday I will do a full blow out of my thoughts on the entire story (complete with plenty of spoilers) but I want it to be after more people have had a chance to play it. As it stands, not many people would actually read the post. Until then though, I decided to focus on other aspects of To the Moon and how those could be used to tell other great gaming stories. What lessons can be learned from To the Moon? Read and find out!

Please leave any and all comments for this feature on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

Catching up with 2011 (Part one)

There are a ton of games I’ve played in 2011 that I never got a chance to write about, and some that are still sitting on my shelf that I have yet to play. I have things to say about all of these games, so I’m going to take this opportunity to write about all of them in a condensed fashion. There are 22 games I want to cover, so I’m splitting them up into two groups to avoid making the post too long. I’ve done this before, so anyone who frequents my blog should be familiar with how this works. Let’s get to it!

Introducing The Significance Project

This is something that has been brewing in my head for quite a while. The idea behind the Significance Project is simple: writing about games that matter to me for one reason or another. We all have favorite games, which are always fun to write about, but there are other games we could love even if we don’t consider them a favorite. I can think of at least ten right off the top of my head right now, with more if I actually sit down and brainstorm.

I’ll be talking about these games to answer one question: Why is this game important to me? Each post could range from a mere two paragraphs to a few pages, depending entirely on the game and the answer to that particular question. But that’s not a bad thing! If I can sum up why a game is significant to me in less time, isn’t that just as good (or in some cases, better) than talking at length about a game’s importance? It all depends on the game.

The games will range from NES to Xbox 360 and there will be no real pattern to them. I’ll have a list and write about a game I feel like talking about that day. There’s no real schedule, but the goal is to do one post at least once a week. I was going to try and do once a day, but I realize that doing that would only wear me out. I want to write more, but do so without too much pressure. Sometimes I’ll even break my once a week rule, but only in the most dire of circumstances.

This project is also entirely selfish. Yes, I’m publishing these posts for all to read and comment on, but this is all for myself. I’m doing this as a way to, well, write more. I want to write more and I want to write more about games I love, but not specifically about my absolute favorites. But I welcome any and all comments for these posts, because discussions about games are fun, aren’t they?

The first post will be up on February 1st and from there I will try to maintain a semi-regular schedule with them. Like I said, I’m trying not to be too strict about it, but also trying to make sure I don’t lose interest fast (which may happen). Do I have an end goal? Perhaps 100 different games for now. If I actually reach that goal then I will decide if I want to stop or keep going. Trust me, there are plenty of great games I could write about and many reasons why they are worth writing about.

My top ten favorite games of 2011

It’s that time of the year again! Time to talk about the very best 2011 had to offer in terms of game releases. Even though I did begin to feel some fatigue due to certain franchises getting a bit long in the tooth, this was a really amazing year for games. Coming up with ten favorites was surprisingly easy compared to last year as well. Most of the games on this list did come from the second half of the year and organizing them was rather painless, although a few good titles did miss the cut, but I’ll mention them briefly as I do think they are still worth everyone”s time.

Review: Trine 2

“Trine 2 is pretty much more Trine” is what I was told by a few people before I even had a chance to play it, and that was enough for me. After playing more of the game myself, I discovered that yes, it was more Trine, but it also expanded upon a lot of the gameplay mechanics that worked so well in the first game. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked it even more than the first. Check out my full review and see just what the developer expanded upon to make this Trine even better than the last.

Please leave any and all comments for this review on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!

My favorite game soundtracks of 2011

Last year, I created a section in my 2010 special awards blog post that centered on my five favorite game soundtracks of the year. Music is one of my favorite parts of…well, anything and I always try to reflect on the soundtracks that resonated with me the most. Instead of cramming my favorites into a short section of one blog post, I decided to split it off into its own post to help celebrate what I c0nsider the best soundtracks of the year. There were plenty of great ones, but these are the ones that I remember the most and still listen to pretty frequently.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Taking the series to new heights

I’m not going to lie, I never really liked motion controls. The initial fun value I found with them with the launch of the Wii was only due to how new and exciting they were. Twilight Princess was also the first Wii game I played and, despite how tacked on the motion controls feel now, I greatly enjoyed my experience with it. There were other great examples too, but as time went on I found myself less enthralled with the idea of playing another Zelda game using a similar control scheme.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think they have value in certain games, but I often find that the games that tried to make more complex cases for that specific control scheme often ended up failing spectacularly. Some of my favorite Wii games don’t even rely too heavily on motion controls, or don’t even require them. This is why I was both very excited and slightly concerned for Skyward Sword. MotionPlus seemed cool (I actually found myself enjoying Red Steel 2 a lot more than I thought I would, but even that got old after a while), but I wasn’t entirely on board.

However, the idea of a new console Zelda game was one that I really couldn’t miss. The thought of using motion controls again didn’t worry me, as the more I heard about Skyward Sword the more excited I became. It was soon apparent that, while the controls are front and center, the experience around those controls is what mattered most.

My exploration of Skyrim and history with The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was probably one of the most anticipated games of 2011 for many people, myself included. Bethesda has engrossed us time and time again and, complete with a new engine, Skyrim was looking like it could very well be the best Elder Scrolls yet. It’s hard to say whether or not Skyrim really did live up to those increasingly high expectations, but I won’t deny just how amazing it really is.

New Game+: The big set-up, the disappointing payoff

This month’s New Game+ is all about the final acts in games and how, more often than not, they tend to lead to disappointment. I focus a bit on the idea behind final boss battles and how those ideas tend to be as archaic as the games they were popularized by. Give it a read and let me know what you think!

Please leave any and all comments for this feature on Snackbar Games, not this blog post. Thanks!