I always pronounced it loom-ins, but vita version pronounces it loom-in-es on boot up.

DrewMerson wrote:

I’ve always said loo-min-ehzz, because I’m sure that’s how we were told it was pronounced when it first came out. I don’t have a source for that. But neither does this article.

I’ve always said it that way too ever since I first got it with my import PSP.

Actually just booted it up there and it sounds like luminous!

Charging the Vita tomorrow

10. Invisible Inc. - Switch/PS4 (roughly 10hrs across two consoles)

This has always been something I intended to find time for despite struggling with it when I initially played on PS+, and I hoped the portability of the Switch version would give me a helping hand.  Much like Darkest Dungeon (which annihilated me after 12 painful hours of trying to love it), Shadow Tactics (threw the towel in after two sessions) and Frozen Synapse (limped away after 4hrs) it's definitely a game I want to like that I'm not really built for.

I'm a blooterer, and it's high time I admit it.  None of the games mentioned suit the natural Leeroys of this world.  'He who dares, Rodders' *smash cut to Game Over screen*.  I (re)started it with the best of intentions, but after a few hours it was painfully obvious that I'm not cut out for tactical espionage with anywhere near this many systems to learn/plates to spin.  So I headed towards the safe glow of the accessibility options.  After adding the power of veinites (99 rewinds, more money, more starting power) I had a good go at cracking it....and failed.  Well, I succeeded insomuch as I reached the credits after becoming au fait with the general gist of it, but I used around 20 rewinds on the final stage (default setting allows you 5) and didn't feel remotely close to taming it properly.  

Is it a good game?  Yes, definitely.  I'm not convinced it's a great one (JonB vouches for it I believe), but I saw enough to know that there's an ungodly amount of depth and a hell of a lot to take in.  Characters blocking doorways annoyed me, as did the view (no matter how often I rotated it it never felt as user-friendly as a top down game might) and the frankly terrible Switch performance did my head in.  It runs fine until you suspend it, but sleep mode fucks it and you'll need to close the software and restart to drag it out of the treacle.  Poor show.  Still, if you're willing to put the hours in I've no doubt everything can be learned if you haven't got the information retention stats of a goldfish.  [8] feels fair.  I had a good time giving it my best shot, but it strikes me as an incredibly difficult game on any setting other than beginner (which I played with extra assists anyway) that would require around 20hrs of full dedication to reap genuine rewards.  That's one of the biggest noises on my pile of shame silenced at any rate. 

11. NiGHTS into Dreams Remastered - Xbox 360/Series S (2hrs)

Spotted this in the current BC sale for £2ish and quickly decided there was nothing in the world I fancied playing more.  There was a time when this was jostling for no.1 on my all-time ever list.  Can't resist I'm afraid, in 1996 my top 10 would've been something like 

1. Virtua Fighter 2 
2. NiGHTS
3. Landstalker
4. Dynamite Headdy
5. Red Zone
6. Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3
7. Panzer Dragoon Zwei
8. Shining Force II
9. The Secret of Monkey Island
10. Wonderboy in Monsterland

---

The Remaster is passable.  It's an odd mix of loving update and lazy gloss-up.  I bought it on PS3 at the time, but the omissions wiped their feet and I cut my nose of to spite my face by barely touching it.  The level music is locked in, which means the wonderful evolving soundtrack of the original has been stripped back to its out-the-box form.  Such a shame, because the implementation of seemingly organic chiptunes in the Saturn version was utterly superb.  The A-Life changes reset after each level too, as far as I can tell.  Not deal breakers I guess, but indicative of a rush job in my book.  The fact that the view is zoomed in by maybe 20% is a deal breaker though, and meant that I quickly ditched the lick o' paint widescreen Brand New Dreams play mode in favour of the 4:3 boxed out Saturn Dreams option, which replicates the original quite well.   

The score chasing core is probably the best thing Yuji Naka has ever had a hand in, and this is coming from someone who adored the first wave of Sonic games and thinks four player Chu Chu Rocket is about as good as couch mp gets.  If I'm being totally honest, the template is so good it deserved a touch more finesse with some of the layouts.  For every divine course there's one that feels a bit too scattershot in terms of object placement, which is a Naka trademark perhaps.  Still, even with the slight unevenness the overall package is irresistibly good, and outrageously original.   

The bosses are superb, and worth a tip of the hat for how strong they all are despite requiring totally different methods to dispatch.  Even now Puffy would crush most of the competition - was chuffed to get a 1.8 multiplier on my first go yesterday.  Still got it etc.  My highest link during the recent playthrough was 77 though, which is pitiful compared to my Saturn numbers.

It's a game worth gushing over, but I've got other things to do rn so I'll just shout out a few more things I love(d) about it: The deformation of the environment and mirrors in Soft Museum was some nifty Saturn HW electrickery - thumbsupcomputerboy.gif.  The hours I spent trying to create mutant Nightmarian babies.  Nailing a complete link is videogame crack.  Christmas NiGHTS (which is on the collection, minus a few things). My first analogue stick.  Plus the scream of an A-life creature accidentally sucked into a vortex is one of gaming's biggest 'oh noes' moments for me.  Top stuff, absolutely ripe for a proper sequel - there's so much unmined awesome in the gameplay format (the Wii sequel felt flat).  94%

Will grab that at some point, never played no.3.

Yeah I loved it, completed it last year.

12. Gris - Switch (2hrs)

Tilly occasionally dabbles with this and I've thought about another playthrough a few times.  Got most of it done in a cab yesterday and finished it off this morning.  If you haven't played this you should check out the visuals at the very least, it's beyond stunning.  I'm a pixel art fan at heart, can't get enough of it (which is handy given the current crop of indies) but that's not everyone's cup of tea.  It's hard to imagine anyone not swooning over the water colour hand drawn animation on display here though; describe this as the most beautiful videogame ever and I doubt many people who have seen it in motion could muster a genuine scoff.  There's bound to be a name for the art style but phwoooar will have to suffice here.

Thankfully, the game behind the looks is solid.  Nothing spectacular, let's be honest if you stripped the visuals out and replaced them with something horrendous no-one would write home about the gameplay - it averages 'pretty good' over its brief runtime though.  It's a straightforward puzzle platformer at heart, but there are some neatly designed moments.  Score would depend on mood, but an [8] still feels right to me.  I half enjoy the Little Nightmares games, which are equally gorgeous in their own way, but the style/game balance is a lot more even here.  The fact that this is just a footnote on 2018 lists speaks volumes about the state of play right now. Terrific music too.

I've never actually finished Catherine. That's one I should try and do this year. I got stuck on one of the puzzle stages, went off and played something else then when I went back I couldn't remember how to do it.

Sneaking in just before the day is out, here's my week 3 update.



Suggestions for future thumbnails welcome.

13. Power Blade 2 - NES (90mins)

Pretty good follow up to the excellent Power Blade.  Even though on paper the linear progress appealed more than the find item, then exit approach of its predecessor,  I thought the first game was much tighter in terms of design.  This one had different suits to collect and swap between, which seems to have a negative effect on the the enjoyment of just being shades wearing crew cut pyromaniac guy - he's just not cut out for certain sections (unless I'm missing something you to need the flying suit to progress past the fans anyway).  The suits are optional as they're tucked behind a mini boss, so don't miss the one with jet booster feet.  I managed to miss the first two completely because I didn't recognise the boss door as a door until level 3. I think I even tried jumping on top of one and wondered why I fell through the platform, facepalm. This is probably why I thought the second boss was a prick both times he showed up, but tbh I'm not that keen on optional pick ups that seem close to essential if you want to get through the game anyway.  

Overall it's good and would probably feel more impressive if it were a year or two older. Quite a few platformers had clout by 1992 though.  It suffers from comparisons to the first game but for an 8-bit action platformer it's still a strong effort.  Good graphics and impressive sound too, although unfortunately the tunes are no match for the first game either.  Cutscenes are fab and the plot has a lightness of human touch androids could only dream of.  It doesn't talk down to the audience and expects you to read between the beats.  Powerful storytelling, John Smith's style.  Spoiler alert: the president of the evil cyborg making company is an alien ('from outer space').

Tl,dr: play Power Blade.  If you want more Power Blade play Shatterhand, and rejoice.  If you still want more Power Blade play Batman. If you still want more Power Blade, play this and give yourself a pat on the back for being awesome.  81%

Was an 8 for me initially, similar thoughts. Playing through with Tilly now - she's been fully briefed about the elephant in the room - and it feels closer to a 9 second time. Super game, pleased it seems to have done well.

14. Rise: Race to the Future - Switch (5-6hrs)

I sometimes watch a Youtube channel called SwitchUp, which is indie focused and does weekly deals round ups.  Right up my alley.  They recently championed this as one of the top racers on the console, while highlighting how much has been tinkered with under the bonnet since launch.  I hadn't even heard of it, and the £16 OG asking price doesn't scream quality for a racer (a genre that seems to set its digital prices via tombola anyway).  It's down to £8.88 this month and I can't seem to motivate myself with Forza Horizon 5, so here we are.

First up, the visuals need the spotlight for a moment.  I'm not a tech guy - framerates and big Dick Lead aside non-retro Digital Foundry leaves me cold for the most part (and perhaps a little icky too).  I've been around the block enough to know what's impressive though, and for a low price no-name indie racer this is straight fire.  It's hard to get a bead on where the Switch sits exactly, when compared to legacy big boy consoles in terms of grunt, but 'somewhere between an Xbox 360 and an Xbox One' seems near enough.  Modern racing games all look the same to me if you squint, but without squinting (and with my glasses on) I'd say this wouldn't have hit 60fps on an Xbox 360, certainly not as an indie release.  The game looks nifty - in a clean cut kind of way - but it's the performance that impresses most.  It takes a mild hit in handheld, but just a weak jab - it still mostly runs at 60ish.  Mostly.  If you want extra shinies there's even a graphics mode that runs at 30fps with water/bonnet reflections and other nonsense.  I had a quick look and it's neat enough but going from 60 to 30fps in a racer is a nope for me.

So what's the game like then?  Quite good and weirdly addictive.  The handling is very lightweight, which may be and insurmountable turn-off for some, but the more I played the more I enjoyed it.  Cars have a tendency to suffer from what I call Daytona CCE syndrome, where an invisible hand seems to lock your steering and drag the car towards the nearest wall at random intervals.  This should be a deal breaker, but the more I played the less it happened, and after completing the full set of Championship races I learned to adapt (never ever turn the wheel on uneven ground seems to be the answer).  I can't drive irl, so it's quite possible 'duh, just feather the brake and turn into the curve' could be the obvious riposte to the tractor beam issue.  I worked around it by going really slowly at certain points/timing my boosts instead.

Forza Horizon 5 is an astonishingly good looking game and the handling is fine, but the open world format diminishes some of the returns for me.  The courses tend to feel like someone had five minutes to run around placing cones on an orienteering field trip, rather than sucking a pencil while sat at a desk covered in blueprints.  These tracks feel like proper race game tracks for the most part - ones that I actually learned as I played, like in the olden days - rather than makeshift routes, and I welcome the retro racer feel.  I had fun battling with the podium pretenders too, if you're struggling to stay ahead of a certain driver bashing them into a spin so they drop back to 4th is a legit tactic.       

Negatives.  Much like Sonic Racing Transformed I never really warmed to the hovercraft sections.  Aside from the handling change it's often hard to tell where you're supposed to be heading if you're in first place.  Swing and a miss overall, but thankfully most courses don't have the expansive 'here's an ocean, deal with it' segments.  The music is sensationally awful too, especially the one that sounds like a cheap karaoke backing track for Chelsea Dagger.       

An overly long review for a game like this maybe, but I had more of a blast playing this than Cruis'n (which felt like a rails racer to me). A generous [8]. I couldn't put it down for two days.  One for Wario maybe.

10:22 here....

You don't have to justify your purchases to me m8.

15. The End is Nigh - Switch (3hrs)

Covered elsewhere, but I've made it through the main set of stages again.  Currently on the second of the dark world equivalents, which is where I left it near launch.  Will persevere this time, won't be aiming for 100% but I plan to get through the Aftermath stages.  Faultless platforming, probably top 10 ever for me on reappraisal. [10]