Dedicated to Nintendo's Switch hybrid, OLED and Lite portable family
Rather than hammering away at three different blogs, complicating life and splitting my audience, I think the time is right for one family of portable gaming blog. So please direct your attention to the new Portable Gaming Roundup site... everything you need for indie Switch games, retro on the Evercade and the best place for Vita fans.
Price: £4.49 eShop (copy provided for review)
Developer: PixelGames
Publisher: Flynn's Arcade
Players: 1
Polemic bit first
I think it is fair to say a lot of the fun has gone out of gaming over the decades. As someone lucky enough to witness the tiny wonders of Gauntlet and SuperSprint all the way to today, "fun" has been replaced by "immersion," "scope" and "drama" across almost all genres.
The first Madden on Mega Drive was great "fun", now I barely have the energy to get through the menus to a game. The early 90s were packed with bright and video arcade ports from Bubble Bobble and BombJack to Mikie, from Ghosts n Goblins to Combat School and Out Run, even these tough-as-nails games were highly-focused on welcoming and tempting players, before kicking their arses.
Each game had its sequences, its tricks, packed with cheery visuals and bleepy tunes, that still rattle around my noggin, to drag players to the next level. But not today, platformers have gone from Sonic to cookie-cutter hell-jumps, characters that lack character, and brand values that trump any effort at gameplay innovation.
So, it is rare to find a game that is eager to celebrate joy (Tearaway and Cursed Castilla are a few examples I can think of), before taunting us with "Game Over" and making us want to go all the way back to the start.
Actual review
Which brings us to Donut Dodo, blending all of the nostalgia listed above into a rich milkshake of bubbly arcade froth. PixelGames has been on my radar for a while with a tribute to H.E.R.O. in the form of Bobby Bombastic among other titles in the works. But Donut Dodo is a big step forward from them in terms of panache and vibrance.
Donut Dodo sees hapless chef Billy Burns trying to recapture his glazed baked goods from the greedy oversize dodo. Collect all the little donuts (with more points-by-multiplier for getting them in a BombJack style light-up sequence) and the mega donut is yours, if you can get it before the oversize budgie and its tricky minions get in the way.
Each level adds a new layer of difficulty, with fresh obstacles and challenges, ladders, ropes, leaps, screen exits and more. Pause for a minute and you'll notice Donut is strikingly beautiful with bags of charm and clever design splashed across each screen.
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Donut Dodo uses a traditional 4x3 ratio with some gorgeous art and useful info around the edge to lure players in. But eyes need to be on the three or more threats per platform that might drop down, screen-in, jump at Billy, or trap him against a wall.
Yes, its death, death, death, but learning the patterns in such a vivid world is so much fun, and beating the high score or perfecting each level is such a challenge, one that starts all over again with the next level. And there's a medium-hard mode for those that complete the normal path through the game.
It would be good if there was a per-level high score (and perhaps secret levels for perfect rounds). And perhaps a few more treats, but perhaps that's me being donut greedy!
With nods to retro games, is that Jet Set Willy's toilet chasing Billy around? Those fruit bonuses are suspiciously Pac-Manesque, and the need to watch above below and both sides constantly creates a level of situational awareness that is truly reminiscent of those fixated arcade moments where the bedlam melted away and there was nothing but player and screen.
Score 5/5
Continuing Atari's 50th birthday celebrations (or shameless cash-in, you decide) there's a new set of physical releases on the way. A pair of double packs containing Asteroids and Breakout Recharged, and Black Widow and Centipede are coming via Limited Run. Pre-orders are open on Friday 25th November.
Grab pre-orders here, and here's a little more about each game. The physical releases should be with you next year.
Whether or not you remember when platformers bounded out of their 2D traditions into the crazy world of 3D, it was a fascinating time as new ideas and perspectives were tried out. That era comes back to life with Lunistice, a game that harks back to the 32-bit days of PlayStation and Saturn delights.
Developed by AGrumpyFox and published by Deck 13, Lunistice is out on PC and Nintendo Switch, it sees Hana the Tanuki (not a million miles away from Crash Bandicoot), jumping and fighting across the weird worlds within her dreams!
Bright and vivid, there's a charming mix of peril, speed, enemies and floating/vanishing platforms, it screens old-school done in a modern style with plenty of cool effects for just £/€/$4.99. And there's a demo if you want to give it a spin!
Grab it now and lose yourself in a world of rushing polys and pixels with silky-smooth performance.
Loving the retro vibe on the Switch these days, with an Arkanoid revisit, more classic Atari games, and now Donut Dodo, something that borrows its cheery palette straight from Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, plus mechanics (is that a hint of BombJack I see?) and some characters from the best of mid-80s video games.
The game from pixel.games (developer of Sigi: A Fart for Melusina, but what the heck happened to the awesome-looking Plutonium Pirates and Bobby Bombastic?) is published by Flynn's Arcade. It hits the Switch on the 1st of December for just €4.99.
Donut Dodo features a serious classic arcade challenge of timing and dodging as the unfortunate baker Billy Burns races to collect all his donuts before the greedy non-extinct mega-budgie can gobble them all down.
Already out on Steam, Donut Dodo makes a welcome arrival on Switch, and features:
The waning Atari years were fun for a young(ish) gamer who didn't see the business disaster and wider media fuss unfolding around the company. The Lynx and Jaguar had some great games and were innovative in their own ways.
Since the brand's implosion, there have been a variety of Atari incarnations, all trying to be new and different while leeching off the original company's legacy. But the Lynx and Jaguar were left in the corporate loft, until indie developers starting finding love in those systems and releasing new titles. Even so, until the Evercade Lynx cartridges, there has been little formal recognition. Until now.
The legendary Arkanoid dragged the original Breakout game into the 16-bit era (loved it on my Atari ST), and has been unofficially revamped a million times since. Now, Arkanoid Eternal Battle marks the official return of the brick busting Taito title with a host of new features. New modes include:
Spike are looking for new hits after the apparent drying up of the Danganronpa well. Classed as a lucid-noir adventure game by the Danganronpa team, this sleuth-em-up will arrive with next spring's showers. In Rain Code, we play Yuma, an amnesiac detective-in-training, and Shinigami, the spirit haunting him, who tackle mysteries in a city plagued by unceasing rain.
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To take on the mega corporation behind the mysteries, detectives from around the world, each possessing unique powers, must rise to the challenge of uncovering the truth. With Shinigami by his side, Yuma joins the investigation as a trainee of the detective agency.
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Not riffing off Persona at all (I love the look of the city above, but the "realm" below screams so many other parallel universe JRPGs), players get to enter a realm known as the Mystery Labyrinth, creating a path toward the truth. Once inside, however, the mysteries shrouding the case materialize as gimmicks and traps, lying in wait to consume Yuma. The rules of reality don't apply here: delve into the ever-changing Mystery Labyrinth and get to the heart of the case.
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Anyway, we'll see if Spike Chunsoft has another hit on its hands early next year.
Among the inevitable batch of sequels, the endless cute RPGs, the daring dive in Resident Evil with "cloud" versions and a few non-surprises, the latest Nintendo Direct was overloaded with games without any of them really sparking the "way-hey" fervour in me.
Fortunately, among the usual suspects a couple of games grabbed my attention! New to me, this is why these events (including the upcoming PlayStation State of Play) are important, to highlight the games that not everyone has heard of.
PC resource building game Factorio is coming to the Switch. After a rocket crash, you need to collect the resources and build the factories to create a new starship. It features cross-platform play but no mods from the PC version, and looks like a finely-crafted bag of tense fun.
Endless Dungeon from Amplitude Studios is part of their Endless Universe series and provide some sci-fi rogue-lite tactical action. Set on an abandoned space station, you need to arm heroes and position them to defeat never-ending waves of monsters...
