PigLick on 1/7/2025 at 00:22
Nah it's not just a boomer thing, Chrono Trigger is genuinely lightning in a bottle. If you are looking for something that scratches that narrative itch whilst not having turn based combat, I recommend Cross Code. Bonus it is currently on sale right now on Steam!
(
https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/) https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/
Briareos H on 1/7/2025 at 05:46
Quote Posted by nicked
Started, played and finished
Minishoot Adventures over the weekend, which is a fun, polished game that takes the structure of 2D top-down Zelda, and the gameplay of a top-down/bullet hell shooter. It's not especially original beyond the initial mash-up being quite unique, but it is very slick, well-designed and just plain fun, with a clean, appealing art style. It's about the perfect length too, big enough to reward exploration and small enough for the high intensity gameplay to not outstay it's welcome. Highly recommended.
Can't recommend
Minishoot' Adventures enough! I haven't been able to put the Steam Deck down for the last couple of days and will finish the game later on today. It scratched an itch for a light-narrative shoot'em up that I had since
PixelJunk Shooter, this time with bullet hell mechanics. It doesn't quite reach the same status of lightning in a bottle for me, mainly because of the lack of variety and relative uselessness of the power-ups, but still does everything else extremely well including the Zelda type overworld.
Bullet hell shmups were always a genre where the barrier to entry felt daunting but after what seems like the perfect gateway drug, I feel a lot more daring.
Thirith on 1/7/2025 at 06:46
Minishoot' Adventures is great fun, but I do wish that even for its length it had been more varied. I'd agree with you regarding the power-ups, Briareos H: the changes to the combat, and to the combat abilities, rarely amount to more than "And now your bullets hit harder/are faster/are more spread out", and the enemies also mainly get harder but not more interesting. It wasn't a huge issue, but I did definitely feel that the combat became stale after a while.
Still, a very enjoyable game, and a fun combination of two genres.
Briareos H on 2/7/2025 at 06:06
For its lack of variety, one thing that still puts it above many other indie shooters for me is how accessible it is: everything works just as intended, the ship is responsive, the shooting is precise and provides excellent feedback, the dungeon and overworld layouts are the perfect size and allow good enemy placement, the flow is immediate. But yeah, it's more of a comfort food than an exceptional dish. I finished it yesterday, think the endgame balance is a bit off, the game would have deserved more bosses with fun bullet patterns and has limited replayability.
henke on 10/7/2025 at 13:20
Here's a great lil daily quiz game where you try to guess how many user reviews a random Steam game has: (
https://steamle.com/)
SteamleA real eye opener in how many successful games are out there that you've never heard of.
I got 420 in today's quiz! "Steam Expert" over here. :cool:
nicked on 13/7/2025 at 07:45
I picked up a handful of games in the Steam sale.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is a Quake-engined retro shooter which plays almost exactly like the Arcane Dimensions mod for Quake - so, incredibly intricate, enormous and well-made levels that are somewhat overwhelming and tiring in their length and complexity, with gameplay which is derivative of Quake - totally solid shooting that doesn't really do anything new. So if you like Quake and Quake fan levels, its more of that. I do, so I'm having a blast, but your mileage may vary.
The Abandoned Planet is a point-and-click adventure with beautiful pixel art and really nice progression and puzzle design. In theme it's kind of a spiritual successor to Myst or LucasArts' The Dig. It's marred slightly by the amateurish if enthusiastic voice acting, and it's not particularly long or difficult but it's polished and well-presented and an enjoyable diversion for puzzle fans.
Nightmare of Decay is a first-person, Resident Evil-inspired survival horror. The presentation is cheap and cheerful but it succeeds in capturing the vibe of old RE games, with plenty of weird puzzles and environmental exploration interspersed with bouts of frantic if not particularly difficult combat. It's another retro-inspired game that doesn't really do anything wrong per se, but doesn't really do anything new either. But it's decent enough for a few quid.
Crow Country is the stand-out from my recent purchases. This is another game inspired by old school survival horror, but its far more self-assured and innovative. The gameplay is top-down, run-or-shoot, classic Resident Evil stuff, but with the option to not use tank controls, and a few other concessions to modern design that make it a bit more accessible while still maintaining the feel of a clunky old game where some of the challenge comes from fighting with a limited moveset. The environment, an abandoned amusement park with extended shenanigans has a great unique visual style, and there are some nicely designed puzzles. The map is interconnected and intricate, but entirely learnable with a great sense of progression. But where this game really shines is the narrative - the storyline does a lot which feels fresh and unique. The horror and twists are genuinely effective and the dialogue and character interactions are sharply well-written. The plethora of hints strewn through the world are a bit gamey and fourth-wall-breaking, but you won't care once you're invested in the storyline. Can highly recommend this one.
Thirith on 14/7/2025 at 07:48
While I'm still a big fan of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I do think it suffers a fair bit from putting the most aggravating hub area at the end. Sukhothai is annoying to navigate, making the last few side activities frustrating and eventually really boring. Obviously they can be skipped, but that's never a good defense of boneheaded design decisions. If you're going to give the player side missions that require them to travel all over the map, and then you make that map difficult to traverse, it does come across a bit like the devs got tired of their own game towards the end. Which IMO doesn't show in the main missions and even in the bigger side missions in Sukhothai: these are still enjoyable, even with the map being a pain to navigate.
henke on 14/7/2025 at 08:17
Sukhothai is the bit of Indy with all the boating around, yes? I liked that! I found several hubs in the game difficult to get around due to enemy presence, reminded me a lot fo Far Cry 2 in that way. Needing to get out a map and think about the route before going anywhere is a plus for me. That's part of why I like the Mudrunners and Death Strandings as well.
Anyway, apropos of nothing, stumbled across a video designed to engrage Malf:
[video=youtube;WltCwNnSKs8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WltCwNnSKs8[/video]
Thirith on 14/7/2025 at 08:48
If it was just the boating, that'd be one thing, but then you have all these small islands, and sometimes you can make your way through the foliage and sometimes you can't. Say there's an island where you're supposed to find an ancient relic (one of the side activities I enjoyed in the other hubs): first it's not clear where there's actually a path, so you might get into the boat, approach from one side, realise there's no path, circle around the island, try another approach, then you find some small temple and only now realise that you haven't got the required number of cogwheels to solve the puzzle in the temple. I don't mind having to work for my reward, but this setup leads to so many situations where you're repeating actions that in and of themselves are neither interesting nor challenging, just time consuming. Multiply that times 20 or so for the number of ancient relics and cogwheel puzzles and I definitely feel I'm being jerked around by the game.
