While I consider myself to be a fan of the 'Metroidvania' genre, admittedly I feel like I haven't played a ton of them and have probably missed out on some that are considered among the best of the genre. Timespinner is one such game that had caught my eye due to its art style and positive reception, and the game's availability via Game Pass meant there were no excuses for not checking this game out. Unfortunately, the game leaving Game Pass in mid-July is what it took to motivate me to finally play it, but I was disappointed and am glad I finally gave this one a try.
Developed by Lunar Ray Games and published by Chucklefish, Timespinner is an action-adventure platformer RPG (Metroidvania) that takes heavy inspiration from the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Initially crowdfunded through Kickstarter, the game was released on September 25, 2018 for the PS4, PC, and PS Vita, and was later released on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The game has been met with mixed to positive reception overall.
Primordia is a point and click adventure game developed by Wormwood Studios and published by Wadjet Eye Games. The game was released on PC in 2012 and received an iOS port in 2016. Point and click adventures really thinned out after roughly the year 2000, but came back quite strongly after a combination of mobile touch screen controls on Nintendo's DS helped developers reach a massive audience, and the rise of digital distribution on PC. The sparse and largely silent scene on PC started to revitalize with modern design sensibilities. The growth of Steam also helped with visibility as many stores were significantly downsizing their physical shelf space for PC games. Digital storefronts are largely immune from this problem.
Primordia is a post-apocalyptic game. But, it goes a bit further than most others and has gone post-human. After the extinction of mankind only robots walk the earth. Players control a humanoid robot named Horatio Nullbuilt and his hand built sidekick Crispin Horatiobuilt. The robots have a patronymic naming system, being given a first name by those who build them, and their last name tells the world who built them. Horatio has some amnesia, he's the fifth version of himself and cannot remember his previous versions. His internal data corruption has affected his name, so it remains partially undefined.
Many times when acquiring video games for my collection, I have thought "this will be worth money some day." I rarely put any thought behind what I would do when that some day appeared. The COVID situation and subsequent stay at home orders have caused a rise in video game prices as people stuck at home look for ways to occupy themselves. This price bubble is calling me like siren's song saying "let it all go, NOW is the time." I'm thinking about many things besides just the rising prices. Our lease renews in the winter, and although we don't wish to move it is always a possibility. We literally have an extra bedroom for the game collection, and the more I think about how much that costs us by having a higher rent than we could, the more upset I get with myself. Most of the consoles I have can be played digitally or emulated. Yes, there are pros and cons to that but it is a major factor.
I've had time to give this new system the full run-down at this point. While I'm somewhat philosophically opposed to giving an outright 'review,' I thought it may be worth sharing my take on it. I'm not delving too much into the technical aspects (which are widely available and the nuances debated) but rather sharing my impressions and thoughts. I hope this write-up helps those interested!
Posted on Jul 16th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, review, NES
Today I'm reviewing a game that has been a little overlooked due to it being a late release on the NES and being preceded by a much less memorable game. Have you played this one? It's Super Spy Hunter.
Bil is handling grown-up reality, so Kelsy and Chris take a bit to catch up and dig into the looming next gen transition. Listen to how our wallets will empty soon!
The Playstation might not have the flagship franchises the way the Nintendo consoles do, but that doesn't mean it didn't have a vast library of excellent games, and that truly came through in the voting for this month's top 20.
While there were a few games that garnered near universal praise, among 9 participants there were over 100 games that received at least one vote.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled social distancing to bring you the July 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our August Community Playthrough games, reveal our shoot 'em up club title, discuss some open staff opportunities, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
I'm pretty sure I've made it clear in my writings and videos that I'm a big fan of science fiction. I grew up loving the Star Wars movies, watched the debut episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with my parents, and watched that series through to completion, and followed that up with both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and caught up on other series when I had the opportunity. My family saw Independence Day on opening weekend, and I managed to purchase the final VHS release of the original Star Wars trilogy, which I still have to this day. One franchise that happened to pass me by early on was Stargate, however. I don't remember going to see it in the theater, which is odd, because I was dating at that point, and would have wanted to go see it. But I somehow didn't see it upon release.
Posted on Jul 6th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (russlyman) Posted under switch
When you sign up for Nintendo's online service you are given the option to purchase NES style bluetooth controllers, so you can play the classic games with a more authentic feel. Well my friend Alex sent me a set of them to customize to one of his favorite classic Mario games. Super Mario Bros 3. This was a fun build and introduce some challenges that I had to overcome. Enjoy the video.
It's been no secret the last several weeks' worth of news has taken a mental toll on me. For a good 2-3 weeks, even thinking about playing a video game felt trivial to me. Recently, I've started refocusing and getting back to something of a normal mindset, but current events still make me a bit sick to my stomach when I read the news. And to be perfectly frank, I think that's a good thing. It serves as a reminder that I could always be doing more to help. I've been taking steps to educate myself and broaden my horizons, and part of that includes the games I play. It didn't take much searching before I discovered a wide array of games made by black and black-owned developers, and as I dive into some of them, I'd like to highlight my favorites.
In this month's episode of the Playcast, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) are joined by Airship Syndicate writer and longtime friend of the Ghost, Frank Barbiere to discuss the fourth installment of the Darksider's series, Darksiders Genesis. Frank gives us an exciting, "inside baseball" look at the game and its development within the studios of Airship Syndicate. As a special treat, Frank also joins the boys in another special segment of the Concertcast in which all three divulge their Top 5 Albums of 2007 and of course a errrrr.....few honorable mentions..... How did the guys feel about this platforming, Diablo-style dungeon crawler? What was their favorite song from 2007? And which one of them has never heard Rihannah's "Umbrella?".......Seriously! WTF??
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on the games we play our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games in more detail. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
