platformer – Diabolical Plots

GAME REVIEW: Elevator Action

written by David Steffen

Elevator Action is a 1983 spy action game by Taito published in arcade format. As each level begins the player character grapples to the top of a 30-story building and must make their way down to the ground floor through the building filled with gun-toting guards while collecting secret documents along the way.

The most novel part of the game, as the name suggests, is the elevators used to move from floor to floor which you and the guards can use to shift up or down floors. You do have an advantage over an individual guard: you also have a gun, and both you and the guards will die from a single bullet, and the guards don’t seem inclined to dodge by jumping and ducking as you can, and you can also kill the guards by jump-kicking.

As far as arcade games of the era go, this one is much easier to get pretty good at than most, so was probably an easy “gateway game” for arcade players. despite the relatively simple controls, you have quite a few options between shooting and dodging and jump-kicking and riding elevators to evade or attack the guards.

I played this for the first time at the Game Changers exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Visuals
Typical for the era.

Audio
Typical for the era.

Challenge
Lower than most arcade games, much easier entry point.

Story
Not much story (typical of the era and format).

Session Time
Depends how good you are!

Playability
Simple, apart from it not being immediately obvious that you have to collect documents behind the red doors, and if you don’t open those doors reaching the ground floor just sends you back up.

Replayability
Not in the usual way I mean, but if you like this kind of game there’s certainly plenty of fun to be had.

Originality
It was a new twist at the time.

Playtime
I don’t know how long it would take to play all the way through.

Overall
This is a fun game and less frustrating than other games of its time. And there have been various recent-ish ports that you might be able to find.

GAME REVIEW: Axiom Verge

written by David Steffen

Axiom Verge is a Metroid-style exploration and action side-scroller shooter game released on Steam in 2015 by Thomas Happ Games LLC.

The game starts after Trace is the victim of a lab accident, and wakes up in a mysterious alien world with no memory of how he got there. He begins exploring, with the guidance of a mysterious voice in his head that knows more about his situation than he does. As he goes he finds an arsenal of new weapons and items that both help in combat and help unlock new areas of the map that weren’t reachable before. As he explores wider and wider he finds out more about why he is here and what he is meant to do.

Visuals
16-bit style graphics, nice enough for what they are. Amusing to have glitchy visuals as an intentional visual effect.

Audio
I didn’t use the audio too much (you can play the game without it which I often will), but the soundtrack is decent, again seems to be inspired by Metroid with its moody soundtrack. The weapon and monster sound effects I thought were kindof annoying, just as well that I usually play muted.

Challenge
Decent platformer shooter challenge. If you’re into exploration you can use that to reduce the challenge, because you will find new and interesting weapons and health upgrades and power upgrades and so on. I didn’t get anywhere near finding every item, so if you were very thorough that would your ability to survive and win the game better. (Conversely if you wanted to increase the challenge, could intentionally avoid grabbing unnecessary items)

One of my favorite aspects of these games is that you will reach a place in the map where you are obstructed because you don’t have the appropriate item to pass an obstacle yet. So you are rewarded if you kindof keep track of what kind of obstacle you saw where because then once you find the item you can head back and find whatever your reward is for passing the obstacle.

If you end up dying somewhere, you are reincarnated without losing any progress–any map you explored, any items you collected are retained. I found that reduced the possible frustration, but I suppose it reduced the challenge to some extent as well since there is little penalty for dying.

Story
Certainly some story which unrolls bit by bit as you defeat bosses and find some sympathetic entities that need your assistance. It’s fairly light on story, you don’t have to really pay attention to the story to move forward, you just have to keep on exploring and fighting bosses and etc. The story there is is fine, I didn’t find it hugely compelling but I was entertained enough by the game I didn’t care. There was one segment of the game where the story really took the forefront, transforming a level into a hallucinogenic nightmare–which both cranked the challenge way up and it was interesting to see what they did with it.

Session Time
Very quick game bootup. You can quit the game at any time and it will save your progress, your map exploration and item acquisition and bosses you’ve defeated and etc, so it’s pretty easy to put down. But the next time you start the game you will still start at the last save point you visited, so it may take you some time to get back to the point on the map you were at. So it’s easy to put down, but you may have to retreat to get exactly back where you were.

Playability
Pretty standard controls for this kind of game, easy to get used to.

Replayability
You could keep playing to try to find all of the map and all of the items if you’re into that sort of thing.

Originality
The game is clearly heavily inspired by Metroid, so much of its format it owes to that. I did appreciate that the game designers didn’t just copy everything from Metroid–the weapons are newly designed, the items to get through obstacles and that sort of thing are all original and it’s interesting to see where they’re going.

So, very familiar format based on a very well known game, but enough original pieces to make it worth playing.

Playtime
I expect this varies wildly based on how completionist you are about map exploration, how efficient you are at remembering what parts of the map have what kind of obstacle, and how good you are at the action sequences (to require more exploration to beef up your stats).

Usually I grab my Steam time on the game for this value, but it is telling me only 3 hours and I know that’s not right–the in-game is telling me more like 12 hours which is probably closer. (But I didn’t try for completionist, I did explore the map as widely as I could as I went but didn’t worry about trying to get every single thing).

Overall
If you dig Metroid style platformer-shooters you should enjoy this game (and if you don’t know what a Metroid style platformer-shooter, it’s not a bad choice to be the first of its type you’ve played). Action, gradual map exploration as you find items that unlock new areas, fun stuff. $20 on Steam.

GAME REVIEW: Life Goes On: Done to Death

written by David Steffen

Life Goes On: Done to death is a platformer puzzle game with a dark sense of humor, published on Steam in April 2014 by Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd.

A king with an obsession with immortality sends the brave knights of his kingdom on a quest to find the Cup of Life. There… is clearly a reason why this immortality-obsessed king didn’t go on the quest himself, since the path to the cup is so dangerous that it leaves a steady trail of dead knights, and each knight only makes their way through the obstacles by using the corpses of the knights that came before them as puzzle-solving tools. At the end of each level is a cup, but it never seems to the Cup..

Using bodies as stepping stones to cross spike pits, to weight down switches, or to scale spike walls, new puzzle components are added every few levels to keep things fresh, though the game felt too drawn out at times so that the level felt somewhat repetitive.

The final boss fight of the game is probably one of the favorite I’ve played in a while, several stages in itself all using the puzzle components you’ve learned throughout the game and using them in a boss fight scenario. Especially fun.

Visuals
Fun and fine for what they are, perfect for a comedy puzzle platformer like this.

Audio
Played it muted most of the time–sound is at least not necessary to play.

Challenge
Decent puzzle challenge. I finished the game without having to look up any of the solutions–a few of the puzzles took me quite a few tries, many of them I got the gist of how to work through them in the first few minutes on the level. Not epicly challenging by any means, but also not trivial. The puzzles add new components as the game goes on which helps keep things fresh, though sometimes I felt like there were too many levels before adding new components, some of the levels started feeling a little repetitive.

Story
Very minor level of story, though it works for what it is–between the levels the level map there are little bits of extra text talking about the story, mostly for some extra pieces of comedy.

Session Time
Most levels, once you know how to solve them, should take only 2 or 3 minutes to finish. Add to that a few more minutes to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle, and most puzzles you can solve without too much agonizing. If you quit in the middle of the level you have to start the level over again, but since the levels are reasonably short that’s not a huge deal.

Playability
Easy controls, just movement and jumping. The challenge is more in figuring out the puzzles and then making sure you do all the steps in the right order and timing and etc.

Replayability
There is some replayability built in, mostly in having target stats for each level–minimizing finish time and body count, as well as whether Jeff was fed.

Originality
Felt quite original. In a familiar genre, but the dark-funny premise of having a steady stream of knights sent to their death and then using their corpses as puzzle components.

Playtime
Steam says it took me about 16 hours of playtime–I feel like that’s longer than it took, maybe I left the game on a few times. But the game did feel like it dragged on sometimes, more levels than were needed to get all the puzzle variants in.

Overall
This game was fun and funny with enough novel puzzle elements and interesting premise, well worth it for fans of puzzle platformers. I thought the number of levels did go on too long so that the puzzles felt repetitive at times. The final boss battle of the game was a major highlight, probably one of the most fun boss battles I have played. $12.99 on Steam.

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Spoiler Alert

written by David Steffen

spoileralert

You are the Chili Pepper Knight, and you have already vanquished your foe and rescued the princess. But, now, time is rolling backwards and you have to replay the game in reverse, in this comedy platformer from Megafuzz in 2013.

This is harder than you might think, because if you take any actions that contradict original events, then there’s a time paradox that resets the level and you have to redo it. If you see a dead enemy, you have to make sure you unkill the enemy to revive it. If you see a live enemy, you have to AVOID unkilling it, since it never died in the first place. If you see a collected coin you have to uncollect. If you see an uncollected coin, you have to avoid touching it. And so on. The Chili Pepper Knight is constantly running so you’ve got to figure out when to jump to match all of these rules, and different rules apply when the Chili Pepper Knight has a power up like the dragon suit where you have to catch your own fireballs as they come flying back at you.
The concept is simple, the gameplay is simple, and the game’s not particularly long, but it’s an interesting puzzle to wrap your hand around and to get the hang of.

Visuals
Simple, cartoony, but fun.

Audio
Simple, but fun.

Challenge
Not too terribly challenging once you get the hang of it, but it’s a fun distraction while it lasts.

Story
The story is pretty slight, and even more so when it’s told in reverse–the conversations with the boss characters are more than a bit silly (nothing wrong with that, mind you). And there’s not really any explanation for why it’s all rewinding, not that it has to.

Session Time
Each level takes at most a minute or two, and it saves which levels you’ve completed and how well, so it’s pretty easy to shut it off when you need to, making it easy to digest in short spurts.

Playability
Easy. The character is always running (backward) at a constant rate, so most of the time your only choice is to jump. When you have special powerup suits you will also have extra powers that will be one extra button, but still quite simple.

Replayability
There is some replayability in terms of trying to go back and beat each level on your first try, as well as other achievements, and a time trial which strings all the levels back to back nonstop so that to get a perfect score you would have to make it all the way through the game without making any mistakes. So if you’re into that kind of challenge it’s there for you. There is also a level editor where you can set up your own challenges.

Originality
I have certainly never played another game based around trying to avoid time paradoxes in a reverse chronological gameplay, so certainly original!

Playtime
I played through the whole game in about 50 minutes, without any particular effort at playing back through to beat each level on the first try or to beat the time trial. I would’ve liked if the game had been longer.

Overall
Amusing game concept with came with some weird and fun game dynamics. The game is not very long and didn’t wear out its concept in that time–I would’ve liked for it to be a bit longer, but it was pretty fun while it lasted, if not particularly challenging. $3 on Steam.

GAME REVIEW: Shovel Knight

written by David Steffen

Shovel Knight is an 8-bit styled platformer action game published by Yacht Club Games in 2014.

The playable character of the game is the eponymous Shovel Knight who is as you might expect, a knight who uses a shovel as his weapon instead of a sword or other more typical period weapon. Until very recently he has always worked as a team with the also-appropriately named Shield Knight. Their partnership came to an end on an excursion into the Tower of Fate, wherein a cursed amulet wrought a terrible (but only vaguely mentioned) fate–when Shovel Knight awakes he finds that he has been expelled from the now-sealed tower, and Shield Knight is nowhere to be found. His spirit broken by this loss, Shovel Knight retires and becomes a hermit, only returning to combat when the defenseless land is seized by the Evil Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter, a league of evil knights. Shovel Knight returns to battle to combat these new villains.

The game has an 8-bit aesthetic that would’ve fit in perfectly well on an NES. Some of the game design elements have definite nods toward games of that era. The overworld map has some similarities to Super Mario Bros 3, but the closest analog is that the individual levels and boss characters are in a style that seems to be directly inspired by the original Mega Man series–8 villains with themed powers that live in levels that fit that theme, and from those levels the hero can gain some theme-appropriate power. The main difference in the style is that there is no equivalent of the arm cannon–Shovel Knight can learn some long-range special abilities that use MP as fuel, but his MP-less attack is only his short-range shovel attack.

2015-12-23_00003 The levels are longish and progress is lost if you quite the game while you’re in the middle of one, so it’s best to have a little longer stretch if you want to sit down and play the game. But the levels do have checkpoints that help make the levels easier to progress through if you need them. Each level is very different in style and contains very different enemies, which nicely keeps the game fresh throughout the playtime. Each boss requires you to learn his patterns to be able to avoid and find opportunities to attack. The game is reasonably challenging and if you want to make it more challenging there are ways to ramp it up, such as avoiding collecting the magic weapon items, breaking checkpoints to make extra money instead of using them as checkpoints, avoiding health meter enhancing items, etc.

This game is a lot of fun if you enjoy this kind of action platformer game. I highly recommend it.

Visuals
Fun graphics appropriate for the Mega Man era of games it is in a style of.

Audio
Some fun audio bits, but nothing necessary for gameplay (handy if you want to play quietly).

Challenge
A good level of platformer challenge, not easy but not insurmountable. If you want to escalate the difficulty significantly you can do so by avoiding purchasing health meter boosts and weapons (which will also get you achievement badges)

Story
Lightish on story, just enough to justify a straightforward action quest, but plenty for this kind of game.

Session Time
Longish, because you can’t save and quite mid-level without losing your progress within the level. If you can’t leave your computer running you might want to aim for 30 minutes or so of playtime.

Playability
Easy to get the controls down, challenging to master the game. The level of challenge escalates well as the game progresses.

Replayability
There is some potential for replaying in that you might want to go back and collect all the collectibles. Or you might want to avoid collecting collectibles (which include all ranged weapons) to increase your challenge.

Originality
Felt original. It had a familiar format/style, and familiar elements, but something can feel new if it’s a mix of familiar but disparate things.

Playtime
About 8 hours to finish according to Steam, though I was spending extra time exploring and trying to unlock things, and since I couldn’t save mid-level I left the game running from time to time so I’m not sure how accurate it is.

Overall
Fun look, fun game, challenging gameplay. Especially appealing for those who like the style and challenge of games like the original Mega Man series. Each level’s design and enemies and boss were varied enough that the gameplay never felt repetitive and there are plenty of ways large and small to increase the difficulty level for those who want to challenge themselves. $15 on Steam.