Can't believe they used your image mate, shocking.

3. Streets of Rage 4

Tempy and I had a gaming evening last night and couldn't quite figure out what to play - decided against It Take Two. So we spent about 90 minutes falling in love with Windjammers 2 while I downloaded SoR4 in the background. Following that, we did a straight run through the game in one sitting.

What a delight it was just bamfing buttons and battering badguys. Getting ridiculous numbers of combo attacks and juggling enemies back and forwards between us was a delight, and the bosses, especially the final one, was a right lol. I'll definitely be going back (at present we only have the first set of characters unlocked) and doing more runs of it. Feel like a bit of a tool for not playing it sooner. Great stuff.

SoR4 is really quite special.

Yep.  I'll always love the first two games but SOR4 squashes them pretty effortlessly.  One of the best modern updates of anything old ever.

26. Just Shapes & Beats - Switch (2hrs)

A quick replay on casual mode, mostly in two player but briefly with three before my wife bailed early.  It works perfectly in mp, with a surviving player able to save a downed buddy if they're quick enough to chase the ghost, Cuphead style.  I can't recommend it highly enough if you think synced up big choon avoid 'em ups might be your jam. [9]  

Gets the full [10] from Tilly though:

I would say that it's the best game I've ever played in my life and I really really hope that other people like it as much as me.  I like the pretty colours and I like the fact that you can help others play along and help them when they're stuck.  The story mode is the best bit because you do boss fights and you have friend characters that help you get to the last boss.  The best song in it is called [sings] Close To Meeee but the best level is the one that sounds like a spy game although that one is a bit too hard at the end.



27. Infernax - Xbox Series S (7hrs?)

Nick sent me a video of this a few weeks ago and I must admit I thought it looked like a bit of a bandwagon boarder.  I'm not one to roll my eyes at 8-bit style offerings but even I didn't think the trailer screamed play me now.  Then I noticed it stealth dropped on Gamepass, then I realised it was made by the same team as Just Shapes and Beats and it instantly leapfrogged all my shiny new PS5 games.  

I basically hammered it over the course of three days.  At the name select screen I foolishly wiped ALCEDOR and attempted an Alucard approximation by calling my guy MOOTARD, which didn't radiate as much heroicness in dialogue exchanges as I'd intended.  No backsies though, so off I went with big some people call me....Tim energy and the adventure gradually buffed itself up to early GotY contender territory.     

The template is basically Castlevania II/Zelda II, although I've only played those games briefly so Wonderboy III would be my main frame of reference.  It mimics that sort of simplistic, proto-Metroidvania style anyway.  Simplicity is probably the keyword for the controls, as the basics are....pretty basic.  You can prod your weapon straight ahead while standing, jumping or crouching, and - a smattering of findable abilities aside - that's it for the combat.  An early confrontation with an oversized beastie sets the tone.  If you think you might crave a dodge button, a parry, a double jump, a downward plunge or maybe some sort of slide attack I presume 'is that it?' will be your main takeaway from the opening hour.  Even Rastan had a wider array of moves.  Embrace the barebones mechanics it becomes an absolute joy though - the timings and tactics felt just right for me and it ended up being possibly the best sidescrolling hack 'n slasher since Volgarr.  It's just so well designed in terms of layouts and enemy placement.

It's very difficult, and it wants you to know this. Every time you die you'll be pulled back to your last manual save shrine and offered the choice of persevering with the default Classic Mode, or dropping it down to casual (more checkpoints, some XP and gold retained upon death).  If you manage to resist this perpetual temptation keeping one eye on save points will be crucial for all but the l33test knights.  There were numerous occasions where I broke the back of a dungeon and headed back outside to bank a key rather than push on and risk losing all post-save progression.  You can buy lives in certain villages, so by the end of the game I could die three times before being whisked back to a checkpoint in the distant past, but the challenge is real.  The more you play the more XP you earn, which can be used to boost either power, health or mana, so if you do hit a wall there's scope for improving your chances outside of the simple git gud approach.  As usual methodical play is key to success, but as the game controls so well if you're anything like me you'll lose plenty of lives thanks to carelessness caused by getting a bit carried away. Some magic abilities offset the balance slightly (one is particularly OP, and made absolute mincemeat of the final boss) but the game is malleable enough to withstand being messed with.  Case in point: it leans heavily into optional cheat codes for post credits fun, and 
doesn't actually break the game.

There's a hidden morality system running through the adventure, with multiple ending resting on your choices at key moments (which do occasionally have some neat repercussions), so there's replay value here too, even without the smorgasbord of cheat codes.  I'm still sulking at the Blasphemous devs for adding 8-bit mode to one of its umpteen title updates but tucking it away deep within the game (which I'd already restarted as a new game + when prompted, so I'm hours away from accessing it).  This scratched that particular fomo itch perfectly though; it's basically a pseudo 8-bit Blasphemous with the cheeky flourishes of Shovel Knight and I absolutely lapped it up.

I only managed 82% completion, despite thinking I'd done all the optional quests (I managed to get the 'ultimate good' ending), and I'm quite proud of myself for sticking with the standard difficulty.  AFAIK it doesn't punish you for selecting casual mode so anyone half interested but put off by the brutality of it all should check it out anyway. [9].  An unexpected Game Pass treat, but I'd have no complaints if I'd spent £16 on it.  I will now play anything developed by Berserk Studios.

3. A Monster's Expedition (Switch)
Big frame rate drops when you're browsing the world map. Controlling the monster with the d-pad could get a bit sticky. It seemed to drop inputs when you were trying to do things too quickly. Probably from its touch screen origins. 
In 5 or 6 hours playing it, those are the only complaints. It's otherwise flawless. 
Reminds me a lot of Boxxle and that type of Gameboy puzzler with tiny levels but there's hundreds of them. 
It's superbly designed. They milk huge variety out of just a few simple ingredients. 
The flow of it and the way you progress through are all spot on. Hard bits usually followed by a few easy ones, giving you a breather. Then slowly ramping it back up again. I spent minutes doing nothing but looking at logs and rocks and going through the possibilities.
Some easy, some that will leave you (wait for it) well and truly (here it comes) stumped. 
I didn't love it at first. Probably thought it was around the low 70 per cents. Then it kept ticking up percentage point by point as I went on, until it finally reached 94%.

4. Cybernator (SNES)
So this is still pretty great, even though it's showing

Chief: Monkey, are you there?
Monkey: Hello?
Monkey: This is Monkey.
Chief: I need to interrupt what you're doing so I can give some long, text-based story stuff.
Monkey: OK. 
Chief: I should warn you these can come at any point. Start of the level, in the middle of you being surrounded by three or four enemies and you're mid-jump, before, during and after a boss fight. Just whenever I feel like it. Everything will pause so I can do basically nothing other than tell you to keep walking left to right or keep shooting stuff. OK?
Monkey: Sounds annoying.
Chief: Yeah it will be.
Monkey: ...
Chief: Alright. Carry on.

its age in a few ways. I wouldn't call it clunky exactly. As the controls and movement are designed around you piloting a giant hulking mech and it doesn't ask more of you than your character can give. But it does become quite hard to dodge enemy gunfire so your health bar can get depleted simply by progressing. Quite difficult towards the final third and avoiding death is mostly keeping your shield up and squeezing off shots. So progress can be a bit slow. The final level (a long trawl over flat ground) is really bad for this. The first half (which is about where my original progress ended) is 

Chief: Wait!
Monkey: Huh?
Chief: I just remembered something.
Monkey: Right.
Chief: Do you want me to tell you?
Monkey: Do I have a choice?
Chief: No.
Monkey:...
Monkey: Well fucking go on then. Jesus.
Chief: In the mid 90s, anime was red-hot and you loved it. The graphics, soundtrack and world-building of this game were so advanced you thought it must have been based on a real anime that hadn't reached the UK. Remember that?
Monkey: Yeah.
Chief: And you actually loved these text bits as part of the story-telling the game was doing. So although they're clumsily implemented by today's standards, they could actually build the tension and convey the wider context you were operating in. The levels aren't dynamic or anything but when a giant mech bursts on the scene and everyone on comms shits it, that was properly good wasn't it? It actually feels like there's a war unfolding around you in a way that no other 16-bit action shooter thing could do.  
Monkey: Yeah I know. That's why I've typed it in this tedious jokey format. 
Chief: OK then. 
Chief: Carry on.

great fun though. Varied and intense and not too punishing, with the sort of space battles and situations that didn't exist anywhere else. Asteroid belts, scrolling shooter bits, a boss fight as you free fall through the atmosphere and then continues in the wreckage from the space ship back on Earth. But it gets tough and was not a game I completed so much as spammed to death with save states until it eventually relented and showed me the credits. Up in the top tier in the 90s, slipping slightly now but still impressing.
81%

Quality stuff monkey. I like Cybernator a little less than most people who played it on SNES, no doubt it was a belter at the time.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

YES.

Chalice hated it, unsure if that counts.

If elf counts as a number - let's say two - then a chalice is worth ten elves. Luckily Muzzy & I have a monkey in our pocket so we're winning by a moot point.

I love it when I disagree with Moot and Muzzy.  Makes life worthwhile.  It's when we all agree on something (like how great Hollow Knight is) that I feel like I should kill myself.

Just picked up a gun in Returnal. The jury is out so far.

The unanimous verdict on that came in years ago.

I'm already dead as I got merked by a big thing with a red head, but it definitely controls superbly.

Returnal is absolute perfection. Enjoy the merks.

SMW is put together with more finesse but SMB3 pips it for straight ahead platforming imo, although I haven't played the latter since it came out on GBA.