TCQ (2022) - The Spectrum Game Review

 Where is a good place to start when setting out on the endeavor to review all the games on my new The Spectrum? Alphabetically? Chronologically? All orders have their benefits, but me and my kid (Ed, 12 yo) decided to just go with whatever game we felt like playing.

So first out is TCQ (Triangle, Circle, Square), released in 2022 by Portuguese developer Amaweks. But hang on a minute, 2022? Isn't this supposed to be a ZX Spectrum game? Yeah, apparently a lot of older systems still have thriving indie-developer scenes, where modern games are still being released for systems that are several decades old. And I love that. While I am definitely not in the know of these indie-scenes, I think the idea of these systems still being kept alive through sheer passion (since I really doubt there is any big money in it), is human creativity and love for a craft at its best.

So TCQ is maybe an odd game to start out on when reviewing games for a system that is older than myself (ZX Spectrum was originally released in 1982). But maybe all those decades have allowed game developers to really see new and interesting ways of utilizing what makes the Spectrum so unique. I think TCQ definitely proves this to be true - the creative mind behind the game, Paulo A.M Villalva, didn't actually know about the ZX Spectrum until quite recently. Learning more about it he came to embrace one of the quirks that makes the Spectrum memorable - the color clash. Back in the day this was considered a big short coming of the computer, and something developers tried to hide as much as possible, hence the rather unique graphical style of the ZX Spectrum.

I don't really understand the technical aspect of color clashing (you can read more about it here) but I realize that just like Amaweks it's something I never considered to be a bad thing, but rather something that appealed to my eye. Paulo took it one step further and realized he could utilize this quirk and incorporate it so that it became the focal point of a game, and TCQ was born.

TCQ was inspired by paintings from artists like Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and maybe Joan Miró, artists whom I myself happen to quite enjoy the works of.

The game itself is simple enough, you control one of three shapes through different stages and need to solve some simple platforming to make it to the end. You can only be one shape at the time, but different shapes can get you through different obstacles. The shapes can be acquired in different areas, meaning you have to backtrack certain parts to be able to reach new parts, in what could be called a very simple form of Metroidvania. The circle allows you to jump, the triangle can shoot through objects and the square allows you to remove certain blocks. The stages are varied and fun, the music is absolutely great (unfortunately I couldn't find a single good video of it on Youtube). The controls are simple since all you need to do is move left-right and jump/shoot occasionally. I tried this both with the keyboard and the gamepad and both worked fine.

The game is very short though, and after five stages that you can clear quite easily once you know what you're doing, you're done. The big star of the game is without a doubt the graphics, which you might have to see in action to truly appreciate. Images might make you think it is headache inducing, hard to navigate or just aesthetically horrible. But seeing the little shapes move around in this world, and see how they visually interact with the shapes around them is just... interesting. It is like a living work of art.

It's definitely a game worth checking out and fun to play while it lasts. I would've loved to see more from this! 

Ed's commentary: 

I think the music was great but found the graphics a bit difficult to navigate. It can be hard to see what makes out the background and foreground when you are going to make a jump or moving around, so there is some trial and error involved in that. The gameplay is fun and easy to learn though. I enjoyed it and have already replayed it a few times.

The Spectrum - ZX Spectrum Retro Game Remake

 I am an 80's kid, but didn't really have video games when I was young. I grew up with a little bit of SNES and mostly N64. The very first console I owned myself was an N64 and I always had a hard time with anything older than that. SNES and NES games were just too difficult, too unforgiving, too confusing. Don't even get me started on games for consoles I had only heard about like the Commodore 64 and the Ataris. What about the consoles I had barely even heard about, like the Spectrums, the Vic-20, the TurboGrafx-16 and the Odyssey? Why would I ever care about that?

Somehow I managed to have an interest for all these old things even though I had to accept that I was probably never going to be able to play the games successfully. Reading about old consoles and old games, and especially reading stories about the way these things came to be (and came to crash down in many cases) still fascinates me, even though I never got to live and play with these consoles when they were the coolest thing around.

But I can't really explain why it's the ZX Spectrum specifically that really got its hooks into me. I can't remember when I first heard about it or when I first started to become more curious about it, but it happened somewhere, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Retro Games have done the world a favor and released remake-versions of a lot of old home computers, like the mini-commodore 64 or the mini vic-20, but I would just register and move on. But not so with the Spectrum. With this one I stopped and my brain went, "hey... I need this".

Then my brain went "but hey... why though? I've never played a single ZX Spectrum game, I know basically nothing about this console. What is it that draws me in?".

Yeah, like I said I can't explain it. Is it the unique graphics? Maybe. It is true there is something about them that have always drawn my eye. But that is a poor reason to spend 100 euro on a console. Yet here I am, proud owner of a "The Spectrum". Don't think I did this on a whim. I first heard about the remake Spectrum about half a year ago or so. I immediately wanted it but decided it was a stupid thing to buy. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. So after a few months of not being able to let it go I just ended up buying it. 

It's beautiful, and the box it comes with just oozes attention to detail and love. I've read and been told by actual ZX Spectrum owners that is a spot on replica of the original one. The first thing my daughter said when I opened it was "oh it smells lovely". And it does, it smells just like opening a new board game. This one comes with the possibility to run 64 bit and 128 bit. You can either run it in the "Games Carousel"-mode or in the "Classic"-mode, which is how the original ZX Spectrum booted and which allows you to do some BASIC programming if you know anything about that. The Spectrum itself is a keyboard, but also supports joystick-controller, D-Pad and other options I haven't explored. The Spectrum is plugged into the TV with an HDMI cable (one is provided in the box) and powered with a simple v5 adapter, same as any mobile phone uses. The box comes with a cable, but not the adapter. Not a problem, as 99% of people will already own a handful of those.

The instruction manual in the box only covers the very basic stuff, like how to start the console. To get to the good stuff, there is a QR-code to online manuals, both a more in-depth one (66 pages) for the console itself and for each and every game as well. These will be necessary as it can be quite tricky to figure out the control schemes on your own, though I found that once you'd tried a few games you at least had an idea of where to start guessing. For someone used to the modern way of mapping keys, the layout doesn't really make sense to start with. Hitting M to start a game? Ok. Most of the games will have similar keyboard layouts but far from the same, so you need to learn differently for different games. Some features I haven't been able to access in the games because I just can't figure out the key for it, even with the help of the manual. Maybe this will work better with the D-Pad that I haven't been able to test yet. But other than that, the Games Carousel mode works just like you'd expect and looks great.

Each game allows for four save slots and rewind gameplay if you mess up (which you definitely will). If the preloaded games aren't enough, the console can read games from a USB as well. There are more options and features that I haven't explored/understood fully yet and I might get back to them in the future as and if I figure them out.

So what better way to celebrate me joining the ZX Spectrum family than to review the 48 games that the console comes with? Completely nostalgia free? Well, that is the intent anyway, we'll see how long-lived this ZX Spectrum fascination is once I actually try to deep-dive and properly play the games. Because I know myself I intend to enlist the help of my 12 yo son who is already a better, and especially a more patient, gamer than me. To be continued...

Atom RPG (2017) - Review

 I am always on the hunt for something to scratch that old Fallout-itch, especially the Fallout 2-itch (which explains why I haven't played Fallout 4 or Fallout London yet, they're not isometric enough). 

Wasteland 2 turned to be a waste (pun intended) of my time. A gameplay system that is too penalizing also ends up being boring quite quickly, at least for me. And I don't recall Fallout 1 or 2 being in any way cruel when it came to chance of success. As long as you played it smartly you'd make your way through. Be smart about which odds were in your favor and you'd survive. And maybe that was the main difference, in Wasteland 2 I rarely felt like the odds were in my favor. Or it felt like I was always betting on the wrong horse, in terms of which skills and stats I decided to improve. 

That's fair, not everyone should try to straight up copy the Fallout formula, it might just mean what you're serving isn't my cup of tea.

Time to check out another contender, then - Atom RPG. It calls itself a "post-apocalyptic indie game" and says it is inspired by Fallout (and Wasteland, in fairness), among others. So far, off to a good start.

An RPG is only as good as its stories and characters, for some reason I find that almost to be even more important when it comes to post-apocalyptic RPG's. The sci-fi and quasi-futuristic setting lends itself especially well to memorable experiences in the hands of good writers. Fallout made good use of this with their different explorations of the human condition inside the vaults, the consequences of the idealistic factions taken to their extreme and who could forget the tragic story of Harold and Bob?

Atom RPG seems to have been trying to get this right, and for the most part it does. Even though the player is a nobody with a cliché starting quest (find a group of people who have been lost), it sets you on the track to talk to and experience the waste which is far from empty. People have created small societies of all sorts out here and all kinds of religions and ideologies have had an opportunity to find footing. It is as it should in the apocalyptic world.

You get plenty of opportunity to makes decisions on whom to help out, as different factions and people looking for power will ask for you help. It is far from obvious which is the best course of option, which I appreciate. You'll have to go by gut feeling, and some times you won't be happy with the end result. Yet I don't feel cheated or like I've missed out on something important. Rather I feel like I got to leave my mark on the world and it's not supposed to be easy.

There is a starting direction to motivate you into going out into the wastes and it won't take long before you get a whole bunch of other quests. They will range from eradicating wolves, picking up a library book (Lord of the Rings) and infiltrating bandit gangs. These quests will in turn make you discover new quests or maybe a quest that seemed straightforward will branch out in front of you and become a lot more complicated than it first seemed. I started to collect all the quests I could and talk to every person I met in the hopes of completing some quests almost by accident. It can feel overwhelming or be just the kind of thing you're looking for. Personally I felt like I had to start focusing on a few quests before I got too confused. It gave me a bit of FOMO, where I was worried I travelled to new locations without having all the appropriate quests for the area, but I kept telling myself it was ok. A lot of the quests are memorable too. I stumbled upon a tiny side quests clearly inspired by the movie "the Thing" and that one will stick with me.

At one point some clearly not-so-nice guys convinced me to go down a dangerous looking bunker to grab all the loot I wanted. It sounded too good to be true and as I expected, they robbed me of all my stuff when I emerged again. I thought I could trick the game, reloaded and unloaded all my stuff inside the bunker. I go out the door and think I am being smart when the robbers have nothing to rob. Only I am the fool when the robbers realize I am trying to trick them and decide to kill me instead. The game is a lot more clever than you expect at times.

Even though we're living the post-apocalypse, there is a lot to see and do. With more quests in my log than I know what to do with, finding my way around feels a bit tricky. Even though each area has a map, there are no annotations nor the possibility to add any, meaning I still don't know where anything is located. Every building and alley looks like another shack. I guess it is difficult to make the wastelands to look anything but that, and maybe it's a bit much to ask for, but all the gray and brown does get tedious after a while.

On the other hand, Atom RPG makes a decent job at sprinkling a variety of locations around the Wasteland for you to discover. Everything from a mutant circus to a roaring forest, not just the regular derelict vehicles and worn down wooden buildings. The people who inhabit the place are equally diverse. From someone with an "outside" perspective, they almost seem oddly un-bothered by the fact that the world has gone down the toilet, metaphorically and aesthetically. But maybe this is exactly how people would react? They'd just accept the new reality of things and eke out their existence. 

Your stats make a big difference to how you can achieve your successes. But where Wasteland 2 constantly made me feel like I was the underdog, or two steps behind, Atom RPG gives me options. Maybe I can choose to solve a situation with barter, speechcraft, personality or strength. The end result might differ, or maybe several options are useful to reach the same solution. Either way this means I will never feel like I've put points into the wrong things, it just means I can choose which way I want to be able to solve my problems. This ended up being an absolutely crucial difference that turned a frustrating system in Wasteland 2, into a fun one in ATOM Rpg.

There is a talent system. And it took me almost 15 hours of game time to discover it. Either that says something about how little Atom intends to hold your hand, or probably a lot more about my eye sight. The talents feel useful and allow you to further niche your play style down certain paths. Some balancing choices mean some skills seem less useful, but that could also just be me not understanding the game properly. It's probably the latter.

The waste is also surprisingly a lot less hostile than the average post-apocalyptic game. You are far more likely to encounter friendly traders than mutated wolves. And the traders are actually friendly, rather than turning out to be mutated wolves in disguises. Almost a disappointment that. Traders can sell you all kinds of things, and you can find useful stuff lying around all over, especially in people's cupboards. As long as they don't have line of sight of you doing the thievery, they won't care.

A crafting system allows you to put things together into mostly useful things, like various equipment. This turned me into a veritable hoarder as any little piece of toilet paper you pick up could turn out to be a crucial part in something you want to craft. Filling up my bags did not take long and I soon had to realize I couldn't run around picking up everything I saw like a 3 year old on a sugar rush.

You get experience for most things you do, lockpicking, saying the right things in some conversations and of course combat. But each level requires a lot of experience to reach and after a few hours I started to feel under levelled for the quests I had gained. Guess it's not a real RPG unless you've got to do some grinding. 

There seems to be a lot to say about a game that is mostly brown/beige, running around smacking mutant ants and talking to semi-alcoholic people. But I keep having fun with Atom RPG. There is a lot to tinker with and every little achievement feels like a big success, because the game is just the right amount of stingy with its praise. It's not a difficult game, but it also doesn't hold your hand. It opens the doors for you to explore it, and never badgers you to stay. In a world where the gaming culture is all about catching your attention and not allowing you to leave, it feels refreshingly pleasant. 

Katamari Damacy REROLL (2018) - Review

The Katamari Damacy series has always existed in my mind as the best kind of video game that I never intended to play. It would've probably stayed that way if my then 5 yo son hadn't seen it somewhere and loved the concept. I decided I would get it so we could play it together. So I did get it, but we ended up playing something else together instead.

Katamari Damacy stayed in my game log untouched until I had one of those days when you go "Eh, why the heck not" with a shoulder shrug. It's not that I don't like the idea of Katamari Damacy, like mentioned I think it seemed like a brilliant game concept. Make a huge ball out of random stuff just because? You couldn't make a movie or book out of that, that idea could only exist in a video game.

The game was originally released on Playstation 2 in 2004, but as you can see I am playing the Reroll release from 2018. As far as I read up on it is about the same as the original but with updated graphics, but if you happen to be curious to know more details there is a great video on Youtube about it.

You have probably heard of Katamari Damacy before but if you haven't, you read that right - the core concept of game play is to make a huge ball of random things lying around on the ground. You play as the little prince who has to clean up the mess his father, the almighty King of All Cosmos, has made when he accidentally destroys all the stars in the sky. Apparently, balls made of random stuff can substitute for stars in the sky if you don't think too hard about it. 

And really, you could make up any excuse here because why wouldn't you want to roll things up into balls anyway? It's just plain fun, that's why, you don't need another reason. Each level comes with a minimum ball-size requirement and a time limit. Rolling things into balls isn't as easy as it first might seem. You can't just grab any old thing immediately, for things to stick to your ball they have to be smaller than your ball. Larger things will at best make you bounce off, at worst make things fall off your ball. So you have to be smart about how you go around collecting things, trying to avoid the things you can't pick up just yet and get back to them later. There is definitely a kick to get from finding a good path through the random items (they are very random and can even include living things like cats and dogs) and a high level of annoyance when you screech to a halt from something that you can't pick up yet. 

As your ball grows the area you're in will grow, revealing more items for you to pick up. Everything that attaches itself to your ball makes a satisfying ploppy, bloppy and shwoppy sound, for lack of better description. And let's talk a little bit about the music. It is great. From the intro song to the stage themes, each tune fits perfectly and makes it a joy to fail, because fail you will.

The game is a joy to look at as well, and the items scattered around are clearly organized in a way to entice you to move around the levels in certain ways. I want to mention it again here that the items you get to pick up can really be just about anything, but every now and then you get special stages where the Almighty King wants you to create a ball made up of some certain item - swans for instance. It all makes perfect sense when you play the game. I'm kidding, it doesn't, but rolling a ball of flapping swans around is equal parts hilarious and disturbing.

Knowledge of the places you go around in seems crucial to be able to make the time limit because despite the games best intentions to give you control and overview, it fails somewhat on that.

The game designers have really tried to think hard and clever when designing the controls, realizing that a game like this above all requires this to work well. To wrestle your ball around you have to use both control sticks, which allows you to get more control over things like speed and turning - absolutely essential to be able to cut corners and avoiding rats that are trying to ruin your ball. (On the keyboard it is a double-WASD setup, using JIKL as the other "stick", and I actually had more success with playing it this way).

Shoulder buttons allow you to get an overview but for all the good things they've thought of I can't help but feel like they've missed a huge point - how to control the camera. This problem becomes very frustrating when you try to get your ball the way you want it to, but you can't even see what is around you. The overview button, which gets your character to jump up in the air, doesn't solve this issue at all. As I wrestle the control sticks I literally feel like I am rolling a big ball of garbage in front of my face, and plus points for realism I guess. Unfortunately it takes a lot of the fun out trying to doing a good job when you feel like you are constantly being resisted. The ball at times doesn't feel cooperative in the slightest, making any bumps and knocks you take a lot more frustrating than they should be, as you see your hard worked bits fly all over the place.

The timer continues to tick down as you find yourself stuck in a corner, or trying to get up a tiny ledge, and it takes way too many precious seconds to try to find a way to move forward. There is a lack of control and cooperation that feels unforgivable for a game like this, despite what seems like their very best efforts to avoid these problems.

Maybe I am just getting old and slow, I am noticing I have a hard time taking good turns in Mario Kart 8 as well... But whatever the reason, and however much I think Katamari Damacy in many ways can stand as the perfect example of something that a video game can do that other media can't, I end up struggling too much to have fun. And yet, when I am not playing it I find myself thinking it would be nice to load it up to roll some more balls. There is something about it that is simultaneously relaxing and frustrating. It seems I am not the only one who thinks this way, the comment section on the OST on Youtube is full with similar sentiments like "Katamari Damacy is the most infuriating, frustrating, stressful, stress-reducing, enjoyable, satisfying, joyous game ever made" and "the katamari franchise is simultaneously the least stressful and the most UNGODLY STRESSFUL game i've ever played.",

I've decided to uninstall it several times, but I haven't. I am having more success when I am not trying to use a controller, so maybe Katamari will get to stick around a while longer still... there is just something appealing to the idea of rolling up garbage.

There is a two-player mode that works quite well since there can be some fun to be had from sharing the pain of trying to build the bigger ball. You can even roll each other up if you manage to get that much bigger than the competition. For all the frustrations I still want to recommend checking it out, if nothing else than to experience something truly unique. And then I am going to do something as horrible as recommending a mobile game if you want a better version of this style of gameplay. Check out the Tasty Planet series - it's fun.

Field Report #31 - End of an Era, Again

About a month ago I decided it was time to quit World of Warcraft, again. This time it happened without too many emotions and fanfare however. In all honesty it all just sort of fizzled out. The final couple of months of my play time I noticed I was only logging on a few times a week to do a raid here and there, and the urge to do pretty much anything else in the game was completely gone. I used to love leveling alts for instance but couldn't even muster the energy to do that. That was a big sign that it was time to move on.

It was difficult to justify the fairly high subscription cost for what in the end turned out to be very little play time. And with the "new" expansion (Mists of Pandaria) coming up the thought of leveling my characters to the new max level didn't entice me at all. I just sort of realized that I had gone bored with World of Warcraft. But it had been another fun run, a fair few years of the usual Guild drama and highs and lows. Overall I really enjoyed that they brought classic back and I don't doubt that I will get back into World of Warcraft in the future again. 

So what do I fill my days with now? Well, as I mentioned I had lost interest in most things in WoW even before I finally pulled the plug and as I have a huge backlog of games to get through there is never want for things to fill my time with. Some of these things I have posted about on this blog. Right at this moment however I am mostly playing Yakuza 0 which I am having tremendous fun with. Yakuza has turned out to be a series of games that seems fully suited for my likes and I enjoy every second of it. Yakuza 0 has turned out to be the most lecherous part in the series so far, an aspect of the series that I've always giggled at more than I've fully enjoyed it. For the first time I might be feeling that they've actually taken it too far but fortunately most of it is optional content.

Summer vacation has just started for me and the rest of my family with the regular challenges of agreeing on what to do. Me and the SO agree on most things  - we enjoy the same nerd culture (Pokémon, Godzilla, certain manga/anime, certain video games, martial arts movies and B action movies from the 80's and 90's to mention some) and we both love being outdoors in the forest. The rest of my family doesn't share my passion for board games and no one shares my SO's passion for Dragon Ball, but no one is perfect.

My kids couldn't be more different however. My younger one is outgoing and loves running, dancing, singing, sporting, playing with toys. The older one hates all of that and pretty much only enjoys video games. So there is a real challenge trying to find something that everyone will enjoy. Most of our days include a bit of both if possible. First a few hours doing something outside, and then playing some sort of video game together afterwards. That usually works well for everyone. It gives us old folks a chance to dig out some gems too, playing things like Bomberman on the SNES, Golden Eye and Mario Kart on the N64 (Golden Eye has become a real favorite among the kids, Diddy Kong Racing was a disaster), Pokémon battles and Tetris on the Game Boy to mention some.

My older kid loves playing almost any game, I would say that is a trait I really like about him. Doesn't matter if the game is 30 years old and in black and white, he will play the hell out of it if he gets the chance. He is completely open-minded when it comes to video games. My younger one has no patience with video games at all, so if we want to play something together we have to choose something where she can get some sort of special treatment or handicap (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is good for this, and in Golden Eye she can get +10 health).

In a few weeks we're going hiking for a week and then all we'll have to entertain us with is a deck of cards. We'll see how that goes.