Ramble: mobile games of 2018...

There are probably quite a few of you who do the majority of your gaming on a phone or tablet.  Following the rollercoaster ride that Lemmings has recently presented me with, I thought I'd do a quick ramble about some mobile games that we've enjoyed this year.  (And some that we haven't enjoyed so much...)  After all, if you get a new tablet for Christmas you might want a few games to put on it!

Christmas Lemmings - from back when Lemmings was good!

To start with, then, three games that cost money but can go into your Google family account (so you can all play them on all your devices whilst only paying once).  All of these are great fun.

First off, there's Bloons TD 6 (PEGI-3), which is currently on sale on the Play Store (for £1.89).  This is the latest instalment of Bloons Tower Defence and it's just as fun whilst offering a few new things like tech trees.  The basic premise is there's a track along which evil balloons travel, and you have to pop them with various warrior monkeys to prevent them getting to the end of the track.  There are plenty of tower defence games out there, but this is cute, fun and really well made.  It does have in-app purchases, despite being a game you pay for, but you don't need to buy these to play the game.  Unlike free to play games you're not going to hit a wall; it works perfectly well without paying out any more money.  I should probably also mention that a free to play Adventure Time version also came out this year, which is worth a look if you're a massive Adventure Time fan...

Secondly, I'd like to mention something very, very different - Gorogoa (PEGI-3), which is currently £3.79 on the Play Store.  This game is really hard to explain.  I finished it in a couple of hours but I still don't completely understand what happened.  Not that I say this to put you off - it's a strange and beguiling puzzle adventure.  You have to look at different pictures in various ways, zooming into them, moving them around, joining them up, to move the protagonist along in the story.  I really can't think of a good way to explain it.  You ought to just spend £3.79 on it (face it, that's not a lot of money for a proper game) and try it yourself.  It's beautiful, in more ways than one.

Gorogoa: it's beautiful!

Thirdly there's a game I've talked about before (Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 (PEGI-12), so I won't bore you with that again.  But if you like motorsport, you won't regret spending £3.99 on it.  Honest.

Time to move onto the more depressing end of the mobile gaming spectrum, then.  One of the games in this section is, sadly, the surprise new version of Lemmings that came out a few days ago.  Now I will always have a place in my heart for Lemmings, and Lemmings 2: The Tribes.  I had an Amiga and I loved Lemmings.  My PSN avatar is a Lemming.  After playing this game, however, I'm severely tempted to change it...  Lemmings (PEGI-7) asks you to rescue a bunch of lemmings by getting them to an exit portal.  You can order them to do things like build bridges, stop other lemmings, or use an umbrella to land safely.  But the mechanics are simplified from the 'proper' games, and you can do whatever you like as long as you have enough energy.  You can wait to get more energy or spend your real world cash.  Then there's other free-to-play horrors in it, too.  The most expensive in-app purchase is £90.99.  I really am coming to hate free-to-play games.  I just didn't find this game fun, and I really wanted to like it.

The second disappointment of the year for me is Assassin's Creed Rebellion (PEGI-12).  I'm a big Assassin's Creed fan, so I was hoping this would be fun.  And for a few days I did play it fairly obsessively.  But then I hit a wall.  I couldn't progress without my assassins being higher level, and the only way was to grind or pay real world cash.  And I'm never going to pay real world money.  Grr.  You have a base, you discover new assassin DNA and fill the base with assassins, you send them on missions (which are kind of fun), train them, make them gear, etc, etc...  But that wall is the problem.  I don't appreciate being funnelled into a trap that's designed to make me spend my cash.  I'd rather just pay an up-front amount and get a proper game.  And if you were wondering what the most expensive in-app purchase is in the game, it's £99.99.  Imagine what sort of a game you could get for that - WHO ON EARTH IS SPENDING THEIR CASH ON IN-APP PURCHASES AND ENCOURAGING DEVELOPERS TO DO THIS STUFF!?!?

I knew I was a bit cross about these free-to-play games, but writing about them has made me far angrier about it all.  Perhaps I should just think about the good stuff from this year.  Like Gorogoa.

Please, please, spend your money on encouraging the developers of interesting, original games.  People who actually want to make a game that's fun.  Not someone who's just making a 'game' in order to make you give them more and more money.  These things are NOT games.

Drat, went downbeat again.  And this is supposed to be a fun Christmas post!  Ah well.

Hope you have a good Christmas day, and get all the gaming delights you've asked Santa for.

Ho ho ho!

Game Review: Just Dance!!

I haven't been posting much lately, I know.  I've been feeling fairly awful for ages (terrible germs) and I just haven't felt like it.  I haven't been playing games much, either.  But a few weeks ago we bought something that I fully intended to "review", or whatever it is I do on here!  Yes, we bought Just Dance 2018 (PEGI-3) on the Switch.  And let me tell you, if you're looking for the ultimate party game for Christmas, this, my friends, is it...

You may ask why we bought 2018 when 2019's available.  The simple answer is:

(Yes, Beep Beep I'm a Sheep.  We enjoyed watching DanTDM play 2018 - watch at your peril - Beep Beep I'm a Sheep is unbelievably catchy...)

A while back we tried a few different options out for Just Dance.  Seb's school had been showing the kids YouTube videos of Just Dance to get them moving in the mornings, and he seemed keen.  So we bought some old copies for the Wii, but the Wii we had didn't work brilliantly since the controllers weren't charging properly any more.  The PS4 version using the camera sounds like a good idea, but it doesn't work well with kids (they're too short to detect well).  We did try the version with the phone app, and that did work, but I'm nervous about holding a smartphone and prancing around the room.  The Switch version sounded like it might solve all our problems, and indeed it does.  I suspect that the Switch has given us the best way to play this game.

When you buy Just Dance 2018 you also get a 3 month trial subscription to Just Dance Unlimited.  This gives you access to hundreds of additional songs.  This was good since Seb's a massive Sia fan and the service includes The Greatest, Cheap Thrills and Titanium.  Hooray!  They're only adding new content to Just Dance 2019 from now on, but it still gives you a lot of stuff to play with, and if you're having a party you can buy a one day pass for the service to get all your mates jumpin' (or looking stupid).

The game is easy to get into, though admittedly hard to do well.  I'm not the most co-ordinated person in the world, and I don't dance in public, but this is ok.  I can cope with this.  And if I play it by myself I can say it's part of my keep fit regime.  (It even has a 'sweat mode' with more physical moves and a calorie counter!  It certainly got my heart pumping - I'm not convinced about the accuracy of the calorie counting but it must be doing me good.  :-)

The game did make me feel old, since I didn't know most of the songs that came with the game, which means I was hopelessly out of touch with the 2018 'hit parade'.  But hey.  There are some classics too, like Queen and Boney M.  And plenty more 'old songs' on Unlimited.  To be honest, though, it doesn't really matter what the song is if it has a beat that makes you want to dance.

The Switch joycons are brilliant for dancing with, and vibrate with the beat.  They're so small that they're super easy to keep hold of.  They pick up your moves well.  And there's even a dual mode where you can hold joycons in both hands and it will detect what both your arms are doing!  No problems here playing with small people, unlike with the PS4 camera version.

Another plus for small people (or children as they're sometimes called) is 'kids mode'.  This has some special kid friendly songs with kid friendly graphics.  It's a safe space for your super-littlies to play. 

The only thing I don't like is that for something that's called Just Dance it has a lot of ridiculous add-ons that are not just dancing.  When you look at the menus there are loads of things on there.  It's not a clear and simple interface.  It has an odd story mode, and a silly prize machine thing where you win various stickers.  I don't see why all games have to have things like that these days.  Does it add anything to my enjoyment of the game?  No.  If anything it's the reverse.  But maybe that's just me.

I'm a fan of this game, basically, despite never normally dancing in public.  It's a polished game that has survived the ups and downs that have meant the end for music games such as Rock Band.  It might make you feel like you can dance (a belief that will probably be shattered when some annoying person videos you playing!).  But hey.  It's a really, really fun family game.  A big thumbs up from me and Seb!

December 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

The PS Plus games for this month are (drum roll please)...

SOMA (PS4) (PEGI-16)
Onrush (PS4) (PEGI-12)
Steredenn (PS3) (PEGI-7)
SteinsGate (PS3) (PEGI-16)
Iconoclasts (PS4, PSVita) (PEGI-12)
Papers Please (PSVita) (PEGI-16)

We're back to another month of not particularly family friendly stuff, then, though if you have older kids then Onrush (PEGI-12) is a crazy arcade style racer that's worth a look.  It's a fairly recent release (June this year) so is actually a pretty good deal compared to a lot of the things that end up on PS Plus.  There's no local play, but you can play with 2-12 people online.

If you're still using your PS3, then try Steredenn (PEGI-7).  This is a shmup (shoot 'em up)/rogue-like (procedurally generated) pixel art space shooter.  Sadly, this is also only one player.  If I can be bothered to boot up the PS3 (every time I try I discover the controllers have lost charge or something) then I'm definitely going to give this one a try.  It looks great, in an old pixel art kind of way, and lots of crazy space shooting and boss fights sounds like fun.  A different version of this, "Binary Stars", was released in March on the Switch (it's been out since June 2016 on the PS4).  It's sad that we didn't get the "Binary Stars" version as a December download - it's two players so would have been fun to play with other family members.

I should probably also mention Iconoclasts (PEGI-12).  This is a pixel art platformer in a Metroidvania style.  As well as defeating various enemies and bosses, the world is full of brain-teasing puzzles that you have to solve.  Unlike old-style platformers, this game has a proper story, and one well worth experiencing.  The game has also had a recent release on the Switch...

That's it for this month.  I have to admit I haven't been playing anything much lately, and a few of this month's games do intrigue me.  (Including SOMA, though it sounds scary!)  :-o

YouTubers rejoice! Nintendo are changing their rules...

Following on from the little twinkles that suggest Sony might be thinking about crossplay, Nintendo has stepped up and announced it's ending the controversial 'Creators Program'.  An announcement on 29th November stated:

We are ending the Nintendo Creators Program (NCP) to make it easier for content creators to make and monetize videos that contain Nintendo game content. We will no longer ask creators to submit their videos to the NCP, and creators can continue showing their passion for Nintendo by following Nintendo's guidelines, located at https://www.nintendo.co.jp/networkservice_guideline/index.html.

The NCP will come to a close at the end of December 2018. Please note that we are no longer accepting videos and channels, and will not review any that have been submitted, but not yet registered. The NCP website will be taken down on March 20, 2019.

We appreciate and encourage the continued support of content creators, and thank them for their dedication to helping us create smiles.

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Woo!  It's about time, Nintendo!  So, what does that mean for video creators?  Nintendo's new guidelines are pretty relaxed, considering their previous outrage about copyright violations.  Main points include: videos have to have 'creative input' or commentary, the rules cover uploads and livestreams, and they allow you to monetise your videos using various methods including Facebook, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube.

It always did seem odd that they were basically charging people for the privilege of advertising Nintendo products.  Good news!

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 1 Year Anniversary!

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (PEGI-3) is 1 today!  Yeah, I'm still playing it...  I don't really know why.  It's just so relaxing!  And to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of this time-consuming, pointless (and yet relaxing, cute and creative) game, I thought long and hard, and then decided to post some fan art...  Happy Birthday Pocket Camp!

by Amelicart

by SweetRoseBriar

by Syn

by Domareen Fox

By BeastyBby

By whispywizbee

By Sakurawings1

By The Pancakey

By Amelicart

I tried to give credit to the artists for these, but with some it was hard to know where they had actually come from...  So apologies!  Great work people.  :-)

November 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

I'm finding it hard to be enthusiastic about the PS Plus lineups lately.  I'm particularly annoyed by the quality of the PS3 and Vita games.  I know they're not going to be doing them for much longer, but while they're part of PS Plus surely they could add some better stuff?!

Anyway...

There is actually a good family friendly game in this month's lineup!  Hooray!  Sadly I know this because I bought the game in question a while back, so I'm not benefiting from my PS Plus subscription, but hey.

This month's games are:
Yakuza Kiwami (PEGI-18) (PS4)
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (PEGI-18) (PS4)
Jackbox Party Pack 2 (PEGI-12) (PS3)
Arkedo Series (PEGI-12) (PS3)
Burly Men at Sea (PEGI-3) (PS Vita and PS4)
Roundabout (PEGI-16) (PS Vita and PS4)

So, my family pick of the month is Burly Men at Sea (PEGI-3)!  Now I know that title sounds a bit strange, but trust me, it's a great game.  It's a kind of interactive story about three bearded sailors who have some truly strange adventures.  A playthrough of their adventure might take you about 30 minutes - when I played it with Seb I read all the text and we treated it like a storybook. The thing that makes it interesting, though, is that once you've done it once you can continue to repeat the story but making different choices, thus causing different outcomes.

The art style is clean and simple, the music's folky and matches the gruff bearded sailors perfectly.  And the stories are great fun.  Ever wondered what might happen if your ship sank and you were eaten by a whale?  Or what would happen if you encounter mermaids?  Or the grim reaper?  Or get turned into seals?  Try all the options and there are 12 different endings to discover.  It is very much like a 'choose your own adventure book'.

Rather beautifully they're also producing hardcover illustrated storybooks of the game.  You can enter a code that you get at the end of your favourite playthrough and they'll send you a 50 page book of it.  (The downside is, of course, that you have to pay $30!  It's a cool idea, though...  Also, you can get a digital version for $4, though I'm not sure why you'd want to when you could just play the game again.)

Totally recommended, then!

Lego Overwatch - coming in January!

More details of the Overwatch (PEGI-12) sets were released this week by Lego - there are six sets that will all be released on 1st January...

75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker - £12.99

75971 Hanzo vs. Genji - £24.99

75972 Dorado Showdown - £29.99

75973 D.Va & Reinhardt - £34.99

75974 Bastion - £54.99

75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar - £79.99

They're given age recommendations between 8 and 10+, though those ages never seem to mean that  much.  :-)

10 years of LittleBigPlanet!

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 years - 10 years since LittleBigPlanet (PEGI-7) first came out...!!!  LBP1 holds the incredible accolade of #2 best PS3 game of 2008 on Metacritic, with a score of 95, which is almost unheard of!*  If you've never played it, where have you been?! 

Happy Birthday LBP!!

We're big fans of Media Molecule in this house - the LittleBigPlanet games (of which there are three, though the 3rd is perhaps not so good) and Tearaway are all brilliant.  (Also there's a Karting game, but I've never played that, so I can't talk about it...!)  Since we're such big fans, I thought it was worth mentioning that there's a special 10 year celebration for LittleBigPlanet - a game that still has a massive community following, with lots of player-made levels.  10 million, apparently!  Some of them are completely amazing and unrecognisable as being made in LittleBigPlanet. 

It's perhaps little surprise that Media Molecule's newest game, Dreams, takes this content creation to a whole new level.  As part of their 10 year celebrations, they have re-made LittleBigPlanet's 'The Garden' in Dreams.  As you can see from the video below, it's remarkably true to the original.  It's a hard concept to grasp just because it lets you do so much - it'll be great fun seeing what people make with the new game!

One of our favourite YouTubers, ZebraGamer, started off by playing LittleBigPlanet, so he's doing a special 'happy birthday' series to mark the occasion. He's totally family friendly (maybe a few 'Jeezes' slip in, but that's all) and we've watched many of his videos.  There's a lot of love for LBP and it holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts.  It's a lovely game to play, happy, well-made, fun... and for a lot of kids who've now grown up they remember it fondly.  So, if you want to see what 'The Gardens' looked like in LBP, look no further...

There are plenty of special birthday things going on, so be sure to check out the twitter feed @LittleBigPlanet to see what's happening.  There's also info on some special bits on the PlayStation Blog.

Happy Birthday LBP!  Happy Birthday Sackboy!  :-D

* The game that beat it was Grand Theft Auto IV.  If you were wondering.

PlayStation Classic - what ARE those top 20 PS1 games?

This week the lineup for the PlayStation Classic was announced.  So, what are the 20 games that defined the PS1 era?  Which games did they choose to put on it..?  I'll tell you what: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Metal Gear Solid, Mr Driller, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Revelations: Persona, Ridge Racer Type 4, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tekken 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  I have to admit there's a sizeable proportion of games there that I've never even heard of!

I'm intrigued by how a list can miss off most of the games that people remember when you ask them what their favourite PS1 games were.  I still remember the winter when my brother and I walked through the snow to buy our first PlayStation from SES Computers in Southend.  Happy days.

As well as questioning friends, as part of my exhaustive research, I looked under our bed...

Spyro the Dragon seems to be a big favourite, remembered fondly by many, and lo and behold I found it under the bed.  Along with Worms Armageddon.  

Spyro and Worms Armageddon

Other classic platformers you may remember are Crash Bandicoot, Oddworld and Rayman (still appearing in great games on modern consoles).  Crash popped up in Uncharted 4 as a playable game in the game, which was pretty cool.

Final Fantasy VII and VIII are mentioned by a few people, and I did find VIII under the bed...

Final Fantasy VIII

There were plenty of great racing games on the PS1, though most have not aged well (some kinds of games get away with it better than others).  Gran Turismo is an obvious PS1 classic, but my brother and I also played a lot of Colin McRae Rally and TOCA, and Destruction Derby and Ridge Racer.  Racing games really do look a bit rubbish with their low polygon count.  Pixel art games can still look like they were made yesterday, but low poly cars, well...

Colin McRae, Demolition Racer, TOCA

Resident Evil!!  Aargh, great times spent eating herbs and what not.  Under the bed I found Resident Evil and also Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which was the first Resident Evil game I completed.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil

Interestingly, no-one mentioned the iconic PS1 character Lara Croft and her famous series of Tomb Raider games (you may have heard of them).  Oh yes, they're still making them.  I hear the latest one isn't that great...  And under the bed I have Tomb Raiders II and III (oddly not I, which I'm sure we had).  Lara Croft WAS PlayStation, like Sonic was Sega, and yet she's nowhere to be seen on the PSClassic.  Mmm, I still find it confusing that Tomb Raider is no longer a PS exclusive.

Tomb Raider II and III

And finally, who can forget Metal Gear Solid, Parappa the Rapper (recently re-released), criminal classics Grand Theft Auto and Driver, scary Silent Hill, skateboardy Tony Hawk's (still going strong), and if you're into fighting then Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Tekken 3..?

The PlayStation Classic features some of these, then: Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Tekken 3.  But the lack of some of the others is fairly disappointing.  I can see where the issues might lie (more on that later), but some might say if you can't do something properly then don't do it at all.

Of the ones I didn't know about, and/or no-one mentioned, the PSClassic features: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Mr Driller, Revelations: Persona, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  Quite a few of these were bigger in Japan than here, which may be why they were included.  But Rainbow Six seems a particularly strange choice.

(I should note here that the Japanese console does have eight different games on it, replacing some of the aforementioned games with Arc the Lad I and II, Armored Core, G-Darius, Gradius Gaiden, Parasite Eve, Devil Dice and SaGa Frontier.)

So why aren't so many of the great games we remember included?  This article has some reasons why the tiny console is missing some obvious classics - music licensing, other licensing problems (cars, or NFL), remakes/re-releases and remasters, some games used the newer controller with sticks (which doesn't come with the PSClassic) and the big one - most of the PlayStation's best games were third party.  Not an issue that Nintendo had to deal with...

Waaaah, a PS1 without Tomb Raider...

All in all I'm not sure it's worth the £89.99 it will cost when it comes out on December 3rd.  It seems a shame that they don't release these things with the intention of making more games available later, whether freely or as purchasable extras.  Ah well.  I guess the PS2's under the bed, and unlike newer consoles that was properly backwards compatible.  Only trouble is, I think the controller cables were degrading.  And we have to find the cables to plug it into the flatscreen telly.  Ack...

Lego Overwatch!

So, Target leaked all the new Lego Overwatch sets!  Overwatch (PEGI-12) (if you didn't know) is a team-based shooter set on Earth in the near future. There are loads of cool classes to choose from.  I haven't played it much (I did give it a go) but "Dad" plays it with his friends when he gets the chance.

There's no release date yet.  Expect them to be slightly more expensive than non-licensed sets, as always. 

The Lego sets, then, are pretty cool!  The tanks are the coolest, I think:


Bastion with his bird pal

D.Va

Reinhardt

I'm looking forward to Wrecking Ball, personally.  No sign of him in the leaked sets.  Hamsters, yay!

Ramble - brain training!

Computer games are often in the news for the wrong reasons, but every so often things pop up that show how games can improve our lives.  In this case, our cognitive functions.

Pretty much everyone has heard of Dr Kawashima's brain training software.  Sitting on the shelf in front of me is an old copy of 'Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?' (PEGI-3).  But does this stuff WORK?  I came to think about this again recently as I heard about a new study to see whether cognitive training can help people with Huntingdon's Disease.  Obviously brain training can't cure Huntingdon's, but it may improve quality of life.  The study, led by Dr Emma Yhnell, is using brain training exercises that specifically train thinking skills of executive function, using number puzzles, word games and tasks that measure attention.  Participants will play the games for 30 minutes, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  I will be interested to see the results!

Brain Training was big in 2005!

All those years ago, when Kawashima's games became so popular, he insisted that brain training could help those with dementia.  But he lamented the fact that few proper clinical trials had been carried out to prove whether cognitive training could be beneficial.  Professor Ryuta Kawashima, of Tohoku University, appears to have shown that brain training could not only slow the onset of dementia, but it might actually improve cognitive function.  You might find it hard to believe him, since he's made so much money from his games and books, but apparently he ploughed much of the money into the research centre at Tohoku University (the Institute of Development, Ageing and Cancer).  More than anywhere else in the world, Japan has a large ageing population - it needs ways to keep people's minds healthy for as long as possible.

Memory problems are one of the first things you notice about Alzheimer's patients - a 2013 study looked at cognitive rehabilitation and training for dementia patients, to see if brain training could improve memory function.  Sadly there was no statistically significant effect, though there were some 'modest, non-significant effects' - the study concluded that more research was needed.

A Parkinson's study in 2014 used a 'cognitive remediation program' to see if it could enhance gait and mobility.  (The motor function problems are associated with cognitive issues such as executive function and attention.)  The games were designed to improve executive function and attention and were played for 30 minutes a day, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  (The same as the new Huntingdon's study.)  The study concluded that the training did improve cognitive function and had a beneficial carryover effect to certain aspects of mobility.  But more research was needed...  (There's a pattern here!)  

A 2016 study, "Brain training: hype or hope?" suggested that if you do brain training exercises you get better at the brain training exercises, but it's hard to say much more than that.  They did seem to suggest that cognitive enhancement was possible, but larger and more thoroughly designed studies were needed.

Finally, an interesting article from 2017 looked at different brain training products to see which ones had evidence to back up their claims.  It looked at 18 brain training programs that were marketed with scientific claims.  Only seven of these had been assessed by peer-reviewed studies.  Only two met their highest standards (they had at least two well-designed randomised controlled trials).  These were BrainHQ and Cognifit.  Both of these websites offer programs that cost money per month, though BrainHQ offers some exercises for free.  The article finishes by saying that it's not clear why brain training works (or even if it really does).  It may be creating new neural pathways.  It may simply increase the blood circulation in the brain, in which case you can also improve by social interaction, exercise, diet, etc.  

BBC Music Memories website

It seems obvious that if you have things to occupy your mind it keeps your mind healthier.  Good dementia care homes have long used different activities to try and stimulate patients, such as music therapy.  I love the new BBC Music Memories website, which gives an easy way to find music from particular eras.  Music plays a big part in our formative teenage years, so choosing songs from those can be really successful.  My nan has Alzheimer's and was born in the 1920's; the website suggests popular tunes from the 30's by Gracie Fields and Fred Astaire.  What a great idea!

So... that's my serious ramble.  It's certainly an area that should be researched more.  It could be a cheap way of helping a lot of people.  Computer games needn't all be brain-melting disasters...

Game Review: Hollow Knight

Aaargh our house has been taken over by a 6 1/2 year old boy who is COMPLETELY OBSESSED by Hollow Knight (PEGI-7)!  This game's been around for a while on PC (since last year) but was released on Switch in June.  The Switch release has given the game a lot of press - it's a great format for it; it works brilliantly on the Switch's small screen.  The game's only £10.99 on the Switch, which pretty much makes it a must buy (if you own a Switch you'll know that most Switch games are a bit on the expensive side...).

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania game.  I have to admit I didn't know what that meant, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia:
"Metroidvania is a subgenre of the action-adventure genre of video games. The term is a portmanteau of the game series Metroid and Castlevania...  Metroidvania games generally feature a large interconnected world map the player can explore, though access to parts of the world is often limited by doors or other obstacles that can only be passed once the player has acquired special items, tools, weapons or abilities within the game. Acquiring such improvements can also aid the player in defeating more difficult enemies and locating shortcuts and secret areas, and often includes retracing one's steps across the map..."

That's how the game works, then -  it's a big world where you gradually unlock areas, having found items and/or defeated bosses. (Thankfully you can travel by Stag Beetle to get around a bit quicker.)  But the story and the way it has been put together really set it apart from a lot of other similar games.

The Kingdom of Hallownest

You are a bug Knight, equipped with his trusty 'nail' weapon, who for some reason arrives in the town of Dirtmouth.  Having talked to a chap there, you learn that there are mysterious ruins under the town.  So what do you do?  Jump down the well to explore them, of course!  The kingdom under the town is known as Hallownest, and some terrible tragedy has befallen it.  A lot of the bugs there have been tainted by an infection, and they're not very pleased to see you.  There are some friendly NPC's you can talk to, however, who reveal bits of the story.  If you obtain an item called the Dream Nail you can access further bits of lore from the dreams of the NPC's.

When you kill enemies you get currency called 'Geo', which can be spent on various items.  To begin with you'll want to spend them on a map, compass and other navigational aids (which you don't have when you start).  After that you can get other things like upgrades to your 'nail', items that give you abilities (such as wall jumping) and numerous charms.  The charms can be equipped in 'notches', and different charms take up different amounts of notches.  You'll have to be clever about which ones you equip in different situations.  You have to rest at a bench to swap charms around, so you have to plan ahead.

Charms!

Resting at benches sets a save point that you'll return to if you die.  If you die, you have to go back to where you were killed and defeat your 'shade' to get your Geo back.  If you die before you get to your 'shade', you lose your Geo.  But not your other stuff.  So it's annoying, but it could be worse...

As well as getting Geo when you kill things, when you hit enemies you gain 'soul', which you can use to recharge your health when you have a spare moment.  (Not something you get a lot of in boss fights, unfortunately!)  As you progress you can also unlock some offensive spells that consume 'soul', as well.

There is an interesting variety of normal enemies, in differently themed areas, but also some cool bosses.  Seb's good at most things but finds the bosses a bit hard.  (He's very good at the extremely tricky parkour in some of the areas!)  The style of the game is reminiscent of Anime - both the art style and the orchestral score.  (The made-up language that the NPC's speak also sounds kind of Japanese...)

The base game comes with all the content packs that have been released - Team Cherry have been making the game bigger and better.  The content packs are Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe and Godmaster.  Hidden Dreams added two new bosses, a new fast-travel system (Dreamgate) and a new Stag Station.  The Grimm Troupe added loads of stuff including the Nightmare King and Grimm, the Master of the Grimm Troupe, as well as  new quests, new charms and new enemies.  Godmaster added lots of bosses and other enemies, quests, secrets, two new endings and an area (Godhome) where you can do lots of boss fights.  (Seb really likes this...)

In conclusion, it's a great game, and since it's only £10.99 (on both Switch and PC) you have no reason not to buy it.  Though I'd probably like it more if Seb wasn't obsessed by it.  We're having to draw Hollow Knight maps and make books of the characters and models and play 'Hollow Knight in real life' (which he calls 'The Tiring Version' since that's what his Dad called it).  I suppose the fact that I do still like it, despite this all encompassing obsession that we're living with, must mean it's good!!!

Nintendo Switch Online NES games

Nintendo Switch Online launched on September 19th.  As well as giving you the ability to play online and cloud saves (like PS Plus), there's a library of classic NES titles to play!  Multiplayer games can be played with your friends online or by sharing joy cons, and single player games let you share the controller.

The 20 games available at launch were: Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, Ghosts'n Goblins, Ice Climber, The Legend of Zelda, Pro Wrestling, Soccer, Super Mario Bros. 3, Tennis, Baseball, Double Dragon, Excitebike, Gradius, Ice Hockey, Mario Bros., River City Ransom, Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Bowl and Yoshi.  On October 10th three more titles were added: Solomon's Key, Super Dodge Ball and NES Open Tournament Golf.  Also, a cheaty version of The Legend of Zelda where you start off with all the best equipment!  Perhaps there will be more 'easy mode' versions of classic titles available in the future on the Switch...

In November Metroid, Mighty Bomb Jack and TwinBee are being added, and in December Wario's Woods, Ninja Gaiden and Adventures of Lolo.

(I have italicised the games that are on the Nintendo Classic Mini NES - as you can see there's a bit of overlap but you do get different games on both things.)

I have to admit I don't know much about NES games - I never went down the Nintendo route (until our fairly recent Switch acquisition), so I had a bit of a look at some 'best of' lists online...

A GamesRadar article of the top NES games puts Super Mario Bros. 3 at no. 1, The Legend of Zelda at no. 3, Metroid at no. 4, River City Ransom at no. 8, Dr. Mario at no. 14 and Super Dodge Ball is no. 23.

Den of Geek's article on the 25 Most Underrated NES Games of All Time puts Adventures of Lolo at no. 4, River City Ransom at no. 12 and Wario's Woods at no. 25.

So there are some good games on the Online service, but they're clearly holding some jewels back to put on there later!  As Mario would say, 'Let's-a-go!'

October 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

It's that time again - PS Plus time!

On PS4: Friday the 13th: The Game (PEGI-18), Laser League (PEGI-7); on PS3: Master Reboot (PEGI-12); on PS3/PS4/Vita: The Bridge (PEGI-3), on PS4/Vita: Rocketbirds 2: Evolution (PEGI-12) and 2064: Read Only Memories  (PEGI-16).

Laser League (PEGI-7) is the big-hitter family game here.  It's surprisingly new for a PS Plus game (often they've been out for quite a while).  It's a team sport from the year 2150; two teams try to control nodes that create deadly lasers across the arena.  It takes place on a single screen with 1-4 players locally, 2-6 players online.  Locally, you can play vs. your mates or against them - you can add AI team mates to make up the two teams in whatever combination you like.  Sadly, though, you can't get four mates together to make a team in your living room and then take that team online...

You have different classes to choose from, such as Blade, Thief and Shock.  They have different skills and builds, for instance the Shock class generates a bubble of energy that temporarily incapacitates any opposition member within it.  When you activate a node a wall of light is projected that's the same colour as your squad.  Your team can pass through it, but any member of the opposition passing through is downed until they can be revived by a teammate.  When everyone's down you score a point.  There are three rounds to decide the match.  It's fast-paced stuff; it's simple to play (the only controls are the stick to move and R1 to pull off your special skill) but it's certainly difficult to master.

In a world when things like Fortnite and Overwatch are so popular, this could be a fun game to play as a family!  You're trying to take out your enemy, playing co-op, but it's not a terrible killing game.  Brilliant!  

Video - The Evolution of Game Music

This violin guy is amazing! I love his Tetris. And Plants vs. Zombies. And Metal Gear Solid.  :-)

Ramble: Retro Gaming Consoles!

This week the PlayStation Classic was announced - a teeny cute PS1 that will set you back £89.99.  This joins a long list of re-issued consoles.  I hadn't realised exactly how many there are now!

Here's the lowdown of a few that are in the shops now (and the little we know about the new PS).  Of these, the Nintendo ones are classy machines, the C64 is fun but a little nerdy, and the Mega Drive is apparently not very good (emulation issues and bad controllers).  But I've heard the Atari machine is fun! 

Of all the consoles, the C64 is the only one that leads you load additional games (via ROMs) - it's not possible to download additional games to the Nintendo or PlayStation consoles...

The Mega Drive and Atari machines are made by Atgames, whose efforts seem a bit hit and miss.  The C64 Mini was made by RetroGames.

We have some old consoles in the house, but there always seem to be issues - with modern TVs, lost cables, or even sadly weird decay in the controller leads.  For many people, these retro consoles are the best way to experience their past gaming experiences.  And introduce their kids to 'what the world used to be like'.  To be honest, I'd probably find it hard to go back to some old games.  The romance is better than the reality.  But hey.  The consoles I'm listing here are (in age order!):

Atari 2600 (1977)
C64 (1982)
NES (1985)
Mega Drive (1988)
SNES (1990)
PS1 (1994)

PlayStation Classic

£89.99 RRP, out 3rd December!
Comes with two wired controllers and an HDMI cable.
It will come with 30 pre-loaded games, including Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, R4 Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms.

The Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

£79.99 from Nintendo (with USB power adapter).
Comes with two wired controllers and an HDMI cable.

It comes pre-loaded with 21 games:

• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Donkey Kong Country
• EarthBound
• Final Fantasy III
• F-ZERO
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirbys Dream Course
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man X
• Secret of Mana
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 2
• Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
• Super Castlevania IV
• Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
• Super Mario World
• Super Metroid
• Super Punch-Out!!
• Yoshi's Island

The Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System

£67.99 from Nintendo (with USB power adapter and second controller).
Comes with two wired controllers and an HDMI cable (it is also available with one controller and no power adapter, but this is the box with the extras...).

It comes pre-loaded with 30 games:

• Balloon Fight
• BUBBLE BOBBLE
• Castlevania™
• Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest™
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE
• Dr. Mario
• Excitebike
• FINAL FANTASY®
• Galaga™
• GHOSTS‘N GOBLINS™ 
• GRADIUS™
• Ice Climber
• Kid Icarus
• Kirby’s Adventure
• Mario Bros.
• MEGA MAN™ 2
• Metroid
• NINJA GAIDEN®
• PAC-MAN™
• Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
• StarTropics
• SUPER C™
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Tecmo Bowl™
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Sega Mega Drive Flashback

Comes with two wireless controllers.  As well as built in games it has a classic Mega Drive cartridge slot, and it also has controller ports.

It has 45 pre-loaded Mega Drive games, as well as some Master System ones, Game Gear ones and 29 random 'extras' (so the '85 built in games' is a bit misleading; you're not getting 85 Mega Drive games. 
£79.99 at Argos.
(They've also made a "Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Portable Games Player", which is £59.99 at Argos.)

The 45 Mega Drive games are:

• Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
• Alien Storm
• Altered Beast
• Arrow Flash
• Bonanza Bros.
• Chakan: The Forever Man
• Columns
• Columns III
• Comix Zone
• Crack Down
• Decap Attack
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• ESWAT: City Under Siege
• Eternal Champions
• Fatal Labyrinth
• Flicky
• Gain Ground
• Golden Axe
• Golden Axe II
• Golden Axe III
• Jewel Master
• Kid Chameleon
• Mortal Kombat
• Mortal Kombat II
• Mortal Kombat 3
• Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom
• Phantasy Star II
• Phantasy Star IV
• Ristar
• Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
• Shining Force
• Shining Force II
• Shining in the Darkness
• Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
• Sonic & Knuckles
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Sonic Spinball
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Super Thunder Blade
• Sword Of Vermilion
• The Ooze
• Vectorman 2
• Vectorman
• Virtua Fighter 2

C64 Mini

This looks like a C64, but the keyboard is non-functional.  You have to plug in a USB keyboard!  But it does let you program - you can use it as an actual computer, if you want to...  You can also load ROMs that you've put onto a USB stick. 

£69.99 at Argos.

The 64 (appropriately!) pre-loaded games are:

• Alleykat
• Anarchy
• Armalyite – Competition Edition
• Avenger
• Battle Valley
• Boulder Dash
• Bounder
• California Games
• Chip's Challenge
• Confuzion
• Cosmic Causeway
• Creatures
• Cyberdyne Warrior
• Cybernoid II: The Revenge
• Cybernoids: The Fighting Machine
• Deflektor
• Everyone's a Wally
• Firelord
• Gribbly's Day Out
• Hawkeye
• Heartland
• Herobotix
• Highway Encounter
• Hunter's Moon
• Hysteria
• IO
• Impossible Mission
• Impossible Mission II
• Jumpman
• Mega Apocalypse
• Mission AD
• Monty Mole
• Monty on the Run
• Nebulus
• Netherworld
• Nobby the Ardvark
• Nodes of Yesod
• Paradroid
• Pitstop II
• Ranarama
• Robin of the Wood
• Rubicon
• Skate Crazy
• Skool Daze
• Snare
• Speedball
• Speedball 2 – Brutal Deluxe
• Spindizzy
• Star Paws
• Steel
• Street Sports Baseball
• Summer Games II
• Super Cycle
• Temple of Apshai Trilogy
• The Arc of Yesod
• Thing on a Spring
• Thing Bounces Back
• Trailblazer
• Uchi Mata
• Uridium
• Who Dares Wins II
• Winter Games
• World Games
• Zynaps

Atari Flashback 8 Gold

This has two wireless controllers, HDMI output, etc.

£79.99 at Argos.

It has 120 Atari 2600 games pre-loaded:

• 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
• Adventure
• Adventure II
• Air Raiders
• Air-Sea Battle
• Aquaventure
• Armor Ambush
• Asteroids®
• Astroblast
• Atari Climber
• Backgammon
• Basketball
• Beamrider™
• Black Jack
• Bowling
• Breakout®
• Canyon Bomber®
• Centipede®
• Championship Soccer
• Chase It
• Chopper Command™
• Circus Atari®
• Combat®
• Combat® Two
• Cosmic Commuter™
• Crackpots™
• Crystal Castles®
• Dark Cavern
• Decathlon
• Demons to Diamonds™
• Desert Falcon
• Dodge'Em
• Double Dunk™
• Dragster
• Enduro™
• Escape It
• Fatal Run
• Fishing Derby™
• Flag Capture
• Football
• Frog Pond
• Frogger
• Frogs and Flies
• Front Line
• Frostbite™
• Fun with Numbers
• Golf
• Gravitar®
• H.E.R.O.™
• Hangman
• Haunted House®
• Home Run
• Human Cannonball™
• Indy 500
• International Soccer™
• Jungle Hunt
• Kaboom!™
• Keystone Kapers™
• Maze Craze
• Megamania™
• Millipede®
• Miniature Golf
• Miss It
• Missile Command
• MotoRodeo
• Night Driver™
• Off The Wall
• Oink!™
• Outlaw™
• Pitfall!™
• Polaris
• Pong® (Video Olympics)
• Pressure Cooker™
• Radar Lock™
• Realsports® Baseball
• Realsports® Basketball
• Realsports® Soccer
• Realsports® Volleyball
• Return to Haunted House
• River Raid™
• Saboteur®
• Save Mary
• Sea Battle ™
• Seaquest™
• Secret Quest
• Shield Shifter
• Sky Diver
• Slot Machine
• Slot Racers
• Solaris
• Space Attack™
• Space Invaders
• Space War
• Sprintmaster
• Stampede™
• Star Ship
• Star Strike™
• Starmaster™
• Steeplechase
• Stellar Track ™
• Street Racer
• Submarine Commander®
• Super Baseball
• Super Breakout®
• Super Challenge Football
• Super Challenge Baseball
• Super Football
• Surround
• Sword Fight™
• Swordquest: Earthworld™
• Swordquest: Fireworld™
• Swordquest: Waterworld™
• Tempest®
• Video Checkers
• Video Chess
• Video Pinball
• Warlords®
• Wizard
• Yars' Return
• Yars' Revenge®

So that's it!  (Phew, that was a lot of lists.)  I remember fondly time spent playing things like Golden Axe and Speedball 2.  Aaah....  Maybe I'll be more tempted when the Amiga Mini comes out (now that really would be something!!).

Article - Being 18 in 2018

The Office for National Statistics has just published this article, entitled Being 18 in 2018, and it includes some interesting stats for computing (including social media) and games/computer games.

According to their survey data, 18 year olds today (2014-15) spend on average 29.8 minutes 'computing' compared to 12 minutes in 2000-01, and 41.7 minutes playing games compared to 11 minutes per day in 2000-01.



I would like to see what the original questions for this were, though it certainly shows that people are playing more games.  And also watching less TV and socialising less!  Looking at it as someone who was 21 in 2000, back then gaming wasn't as 'normal' a thing as it is now.  And smart phones didn't exist.  (I wonder if people do more 'socialising' via their phones now, and less face to face, thus affecting the stats?)  At any rate, it's not a surprise that the stats came out like this...

Ramble: National Coding Week!

This week is National Coding Week.  Way back in the mists of time, I was lucky enough to have access to a BBC Micro at my primary school.  Since we didn't know enough at the time to fear it, or consider it 'too complicated', we learned how to program.  We played with Logo, and we learned BBC Basic.  Lots of PRINT "Hello, World" going on there, and similar.  Then, sadly, we moved on to secondary school and learnt little more than boring word processing and other things I could do anyway.  (And thus I lost interest in studying IT at school.)

Now, fantastically, Coding is part of the National Curriculum!  Key Stage 1 kids (that's years 1 and 2) are supposed to have learnt all about algorithms!  And creating and debugging programs!  And logic!  By the end of Key Stage 3 (years 7-9) they should be able to use two or more programming languages (one textual).  I really wish I had had this opportunity at school.

So, why is Coding important?  It can involve maths, art, science, design and technology, music... it teaches you logic, problem solving, and gives you a creative outlet.  It helps with literacy and numeracy.  And the great thing about Coding is that it involves computers, and kids love computers.  You're learning without knowing you're learning.  It's fun, but it's teaching you transferable skills - this isn't only useful if you're looking for a career at Microsoft.

The two main languages learnt in schools are Scratch and Python.  Scratch is a really fun, visual, easy to understand (yet challenging to completely master) programming language.  You can create some really complex stuff with it, but it's easy to get started.  There are loads of brilliant Video Tutorials available on the Scratch website.  Python is harder to get to grips with, though vaguely familiar to those of us who remember BBC Basic!  This is your textual language, then, and though it may be more daunting it's supposed to be fun (it's called Python because of Monty Python, apparently).  As well as school, there are lots of other opportunities for kids to learn Coding, such as Code Club - a free coding club for 9-13 years olds that meets across the country.

In Year 1 at school Seb used various things to learn Coding.  Logo (and the accompanying Turtle) seems to have been replaced by Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot.  These guys can be programmed to complete obstacle courses.  Plus they're kind of cute.  Also he's used apps like A.L.E.X. (PEGI-3), which is a puzzle game where you have to program a robot with a sequence of commands to get him through a level.  After a gentle introduction with things like these the kids move on to using Scratch to do "proper" programming.

I should probably mention Minecraft (PEGI-7) here, too.  With redstone you can build complex circuits to achieve all sorts of things.  With command blocks you can execute commands - any command that is run in your chat window.  You place the block, add a redstone device (like a pressure plate, or lever), and program the command block.  There are plenty of redstone and command block tutorials online.

If you're an adult and you'd like to learn Coding, it's certainly not too late. The tutorials aimed at kids are just as fun for grown ups, and if you want something that looks more impressive on your CV you could always try the courses at Future Learn (such as Game Design and Development: A Bit-by-Bit History of Video Game Music, or Begin Programming: Build Your First Mobile Game.  Or you could see what's available at your local college/adult education centre.

At the start of the home computing revolution, people were making games from their bedrooms.  For a while that stopped being possible.  Now things have come full circle, and people are programming from their bedrooms once more!  So, this Coding week, why not try Coding?  I can't wait for the next generation of Indie games developers.  :-)