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I have a certain group of friends over about every week on Fridays. About 2018-ish, we started a little thing we've had going on for years: one person out of the three plays a game, and another person of the three will narrate it.
For reference and privacy's sake, I will be referring to the members of this friend group by their internet usernames.
The group consists of three members:
Me, obviously,
cool kid k,
and Grassalina.
(The whole narrating thing originally started because of one of my Grassalina's at-the-time lack of reading skills compared to the rest of the group, but she has since caught up with us and now we read the dialogue for fun. Sometimes I even do it when playing games with my mother!)
Minecraft: Story Mode was a game that I had played a couple times when I was younger. Back when that group of friends had just started this whole ordeal, that was one of the first games we played.
About October, we decided that now that we're older and have a more actualized idea of what's going on, we'd play through the game again. cool kid k was actually playing the game, while Grassalina and I watched and made decisions.
Telltale's writing in Minecraft: Story Mode had us all scratching our heads at certain times. While funny, a considerable amount of the dialogue options wound up having a way different meaning then what was originally intended; being that Minecraft: Story Mode is primarily a story-based game, this often leads you to make the choices that you don't want to. Due to this, we have ended up restarting an episode a lot.
The combat engine in Season One is also abysmal. The Telltale engine seems more designed for the cutscenes then the combat, which ends up leading to a combat experience that feels... not great. Thankfully, Season Two improved upon this.
Despite the negatives mentioned, I think that Minecraft: Story Mode, had Telltale survived longer, could have been fleshed out into a better gameplay experience. There's definitely a lot of good ideas here, but not enough to really cultivate anything.
I've been koola, and see you in 2023.
(I didn't really want to end the year on a negative note...)
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Posted on Dec 6th 2022 at 08:00:00 AM by ( MetalFRO) Posted under Deathsmiles, Shoot the Corecast, podcast, Shmup Club, Cave, 360, Switch, arcade, shooting game, shoot em up, STG, shooter |
[img width=500 height=500]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-11-22_stcc_ep_052_deathsmiles.png[/img]
In Episode 052, MetalFRO and Addicted are joined by guest Rena to take an in-depth look at Deathsmiles! We talk about the game's story and game play, and Rena breaks down the scoring so we can better understand how it all works.
Listen to the episode right here on RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-11-22_stcc_ep_052_deathsmiles.mp3
Or find a feed on your favorite podcast service through our Linktree page:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19691.0
Thanks for listening!
Where has the time gone? November already. Time to show your fellow RFGenners just how cool you think they are by filling their stockings with amazing video games! The deadline to sign up AND send your letter to Santa is Black Friday (11/25) so please don't hesitate!
http://www.rfgeneration.c...19696.msg284446#msg284446
I originally planned to write this month's article about Hollow Knight. I started it, and have played it a bit, but only got a bit into the first area.
What actually ended up happening was me playing a TON of Plants vs. Zombies this month. The exact set of circumstances that led up to this I won't delve into here, because it actually involves my personal life a lot, but just know that I ended up getting the game on Steam.
One thing that I want to say before I get into the actual review proper is that I've been playing it through on both Steam and on my 2DS at the same time. By that I mean I would play ~4 levels on my PC and then play them through on my DS.
In my opinion, the DS version of Plants vs. Zombies is EXTREMELY underrated! Sure, it may be laggy at times, but the actual game of Plants vs. Zombies is usually slow, so the lag isn't much of a problem. Something I find really cool about the DS version is unlike the other console ports, the game takes advantage of the DS's various features. For example, usually in 3-5 it's just a regular conveyor belt level, but in the DS version, it's this cool otherwise unseen minigame where you use the microphone.
Plants vs. Zombies is in a similar vein to Terraria for me. All of my friends (and even my older brother) have beaten the game at least twice. I, prior to this review, had only gotten to the second world.
Like I said, I don't really want to get into the specifics of why I started it this time, but I played way more than I usually do this playthrough. From my experience, the game is phenomenal.
I think my favorite part of Plants vs. Zombies is all the different strategies you can use. The game doesn't force you to go down any specific path. In fact, you can even start a level without Sunflowers with nothing more than a simple warning.
Because of that, I can't really REVIEW this game from a gameplay standpoint, other than the basics, which are already really solid.
I've been koola, and tacos are delicious. I would also buy a taco for $1000.
(Who knew that vegetation fighting dead people would be so fun?)
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Posted on Oct 25th 2022 at 08:00:00 AM by ( MetalFRO) Posted under Operation STEEL, Shoot the Corecast, podcast, Shmup Club, Undermog Games, indie game, arcade, shooting game, shoot em up, STG, shooter |
[img width=500 height=437]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-10-18_stcc_ep_051_operation_steel.jpg[/img]
In Episode 051, MetalFRO and Addicted dive deep into the game Operation STEEL with Ben, the developer behind it! We talk about the game's influences and inspirations, challenges during development, and all the things that make this game tick. It was a really fun discussion! Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
Listen to the episode right here at RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-10-18_stcc_ep_051_operation_steel.mp3
Or check our Linktree page for the feed on your favorite podcast service:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check the original discussion thread here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19685.0
Thanks for listening!
Toaplan is a legendary developer at this point, having helped propel the shoot-em-up genre to new heights in the late 80's and early 90's. While they burned brightly for a few short years, they developed a number of highly influential titles. One of the hallmarks of Toaplan games is their level of challenge. Most of their games are considered among the most difficult in the genre, at least in terms of earlier games, prior to the shift toward manic and danmaku style. Toaplan has a couple games that stand above the rest, in terms of the sheer difficulty, however.
Upon its release in arcades, Toaplan's Same! Same! Same! immediately stood out in comparison to its predecessor, Hishouszame, which we knew in the West as Flying Shark. At the time, it could have been considered one of the most difficult shooter that had released up to that point. Thankfully, when the game came westward, the difficulty was tempered somewhat, so as not to turn players away. The renamed Fire Shark also got a home release on the Sega Megadrive and Genesis, and Toaplan themselves took the time to retool the game to balance it better. Join the RF Generation in November 2022 as we take on one of Toaplan's most infamous challenges with Fire Shark!
Omnifate has officially been my longest project.
The amount of hours I've poured into this project has almost outshined my amount of hours on YouTube on Switch.
All jokes aside, I've been hard at work on this for about 4 months now. Although the work on the RPG technically started a year ago, I hadn't really been actually doing anything 'til June 2022 due to various reasons.
Making a game isn't hard, honestly; the biggest problem that I've fixed has only took me 2 weeks.
What I find harder is telling the story you actually want to tell. I've had the idea for making a game since about 2020; it started taking shape in 2021; and now here we are with a demo of the game.
When I've watched interviews with game developers, the number one thing I hear is to keep it small. It is incredibly hard to control your excitement about such a project, so you'll often get carried away doing things related to the game, but not working on the actual game.
OMNIFATE has been a big passion project. I'm not really intending to profit off of it. My goal here is to create a game that I would want to play. I want to see more Earthbound-style games, so I'm making one. If anybody disagrees, that's fine.
So far, development has had its hurdles, but I'm really liking how it's coming along.
Composing the music for OMNIFATE has been really fun, too. In my head, before July 2021, I thought that if anything were to be completed and music was to be done, I would have music commissioned by someone like C418. But since I composed Wurly, I've been composing my own music and had a better appreciation of video game soundtracks. I've been told by a lot of people that my music is really well done. (Shameless plug but check out my music on Spotify or wherever you stream your music.)
I've been koola, and I know. I made this article way too late.
(Number of bugs: 348,973 and counting...)
I am going to preface this by saying if you've never played through the entire game of OneShot and don't want to spoiled, DO NOT READ AHEAD. I am going to put several line spaces so nobody gets accidentally spoiled. Go through the game yourself. It is amazing.
Alright, that should be enough.
I know I already said this, but don't read ahead if you haven't already played through the entirety of OneShot.
One style of games I extremely like, being the fan of games and coding that I am, is games that break the fourth wall. Games such as Undertale and Doki Doki Literature Club.
I had heard about OneShot a few times before but never actually looked that much into it. At that age I pretty much overlooked any anime-style game.
That's where is stood in my cognition for about 2 years. Just a Doki Doki Literature Club clone, I thought. (Even though OneShot came first...)
Until one December 2021. December 2021 was an interesting time to be an Undertale fan. Everyone was just coming off of the high of Deltarune Chapter 2. But, I guess, somebody in the Deltarune YouTubers group chat (which, as I initially wrote the script for this article, was a joke; now coming to figure out actually exists) suggested that everyone try OneShot.
Naturally, as one of the main consumers of this type of content, I of course heard about OneShot. At that point, I made one of the decisions in my gaming life that I regret the most:spoiling the entire main playthrough of OneShot.
I looked through the playlist for the specific playthrough I was watching and found out there was more episodes, so I decided to stop spoiling myself. I had by that point already sowed the seeds for my Dad to get me Steam so I figured I could just play it then.
On April 20th, 2022 (nice), I finally got access to Steam. After a couple weeks, I saved enough money to buy a $20 Steam gift card. I didn't get OneShot because I wanted to buy both F.I.S.H. and the Henry Stickmin Collection.
Fast forward to September 22, 2022. OneShot World Machine Edition launches.
I bought it as soon as possible, (which due to CGC 2022), was October 1, 2022.
I had a goal in mind: get through the main game, and experience the second playthough myself, unspoiled.
I succeeded in that goal.
Lengthy backstory aside, OneShot is an amazing game. The puzzles have you going into the operating system to solve them, and aren't too hard if you know what you're doing. I legitimately have zero gripes with the main game.
OneShot has you take the role of the savior of the world he's thrusted in. The savior, Niko, is basically a cat that stands on two legs and has skin. (that sounds much more gruesome on paper than in my head) Niko has the "sacred" ability to contact their god, the player. (Side note: I don't like how the Switch version handles this. It calls you by your account name, which is much less drawing than calling you by your first name.)
This player-character relationship is something I have not seen any other game do before (and DDLC doesn't count, that was just one point of the story.). Normally, in most games, you are free to do whatever you want to the characters. They don't feel real. They aren't aware of the outside world.
OneShot's ability to completely demolish this barrier of storytelling is completely unprecedented. It truly feels like something wholly different in the realm of games.
And that's where I would end the article.
...Except. In 2017, a new update to the game called Solstice was released. This update broke my already high expectations and threw them out the window. Not only does Niko communicate directly with the player more in this update, but he finds out why he exists, that this whole thing is a simulation, and that you wanted to have a second shot. He even tames the robot keeping this world together.
And that, my friends, is how you make a good game.
I've been koola, and OneShot is art. You cannot tell me otherwise.
(83 years is now 290 days.)
[img width=600 height=300]http://www.vgmonline.net/wp-content/uploads/deathsmilesbig.jpg[/img]
Spooky season is upon us! The Shmup Club celebrates with spooky games, and this year we're going with a heavy hitter, CAVE's classic Deathsmiles! From designer Tsuneki Ikeda, in collaboration with artist "Joker" Junya Inoue, CAVE decided to veer away from the normal vertically scrolling danmaku shooters that had become its main focus, and create an experience that could be more approachable. Diverging from both the heavy military theme of games like DoDonPachi and Ketsui, as well as the more colorful fantasy worlds of Mushihimesama, Ibara, and Espgaluda, this game saw CAVE exploring more of a gothic horror kind of look and feel. It also gave players more control of the horizontal space by allowing them to shoot both left and right, allowing for more freedom in strategic play. Deathsmiles also introduced a variable difficulty based on the path you take through the game.
Windia is a girl who had just moved to London, when suddenly she was whisked away in a flash of light as she was on her way to school. Transported to the magical world of Gilverado, she is taken in by Count Dior, and trained to realize her magical powers. Then she can join the other lost girls in defending the world of Gilverado against an invading horde of monsters. What horrors await Windia and the others as they work to free the land from this evil? Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in October 2022 as we find out, when we play the CAVE classic Deathsmiles!
Sign up here to participate:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19691.0
[img width=500 height=554]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-08-20_stcc_ep_049_raiden_fighters.jpg[/img]
In Episode 049, Addicted and MetalFRO explore Seibu Kaihatsu's offshoot to the main Raiden series, a game that almost wasn't affiliated with the series - Raiden Fighters! We look at what makes the Raiden Fighters series different from the games that it descended from, even if that was never the original intent.
You can listen to the episode right here on RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-08-20_stcc_ep_049_raiden_fighters.mp3
Or visit our Linktree page to find the feed for your favorite podcast service:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19671.0
Thanks for listening!
The "Rogue-lite" style of gaming has taken off in the last few years. From RPGs to action platformers, plenty of developers have thrown their hat into the ring, making games with randomized elements to try and spur replay. Some of those games have proven quite successful. Others have fallen by the wayside, not quite finding an audience. One genre where a degree of randomness has always been a factor is shooting games, but usually within pretty tight constraints. What happens when you throw caution to the wind, and go random in a big way?
You get a shoot-em-up like Operation STEEL! From developer Undermog Games, Operation STEEL sees you piloting a space ship across various landscapes to take on random hoards of enemies. Are you tough enough to survive 20 randomized levels? Test your mettle against all manner of crazy bosses, and enemy waves you can't predict! Collect coins and buy weapons and upgrades for your ship to make your runs through the game easier, as well. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in September 2022 as we play Operation STEEL! Available now on Steam.
Sign up in the thread here to participate:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19685.0
I have been developing a lot lately, so I'm sorry for the lack of articles. It has been really good, though. I've been getting a lot of stuff done lately, (and have encountered at least 2,519 bugs), so that's been nice. Hopefully another devlog soon.
One thing I've been doing while not developing has been playing Terraria.
Previously, I had heard of Terraria, thanks to a bunch of my friends really liking it. I had started a few worlds but only got about five minutes into them before eventually just giving up and stating that it was too similar to Minecraft.
About a week ago, however, me and my brother were doing our usual activity of him playing the Xbox 360 and me on my computer. During these he usually plays Split/Second, but a day earlier he had beaten it. After I bombarded him with literally everything happening in my life, he stood there for 2 minutes or so before asking "What's a good Xbox 360 game?".
After a bit of thinking, the only things that came to my mind were Minecraft, which he was on track to beating, Split/Second, which he had just beaten, and Terraria. Out of options, I chose Terraria. He agreed and went to get the game from my father's collection. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.
We load it up, and I plug in the red Xbox 360 controller I usually use on my PC into the actual console it was made for. He loads up the game after spending some time making his character, and I join.
I guess at this stage in my life things are changing quickly (the repeating narrative), because both Zach and I had gotten way more out of this play session than either of us thought we were going to. We ended up playing for around two hours that day.
Since then, every time we do our daily ritual of loading up the Xbox 360, this is the game we go to instead of Minecraft or Split/Second. There's just something about this game that really clicked with me that a game really hasn't since I got Baba Is You. I have since started my own world on my Switch and play it for a bit every day.
What's even greater about Terraria in particular is that I know diddly squat about it. I like to use the internet and have been regarded as the techy know-it-all in my family. Most of the games I like end up being unfun because after having that initial rush of satisfaction with it, I look up everything there is to know about it. I have seen this happen with most of my favorites, like Minecraft and Persona 5. But since I had previously dashed off Terraria as something too similar to Minecraft, I had not really looked anything up or watched anything about it, and that lets me enjoy Terraria to the fullest extent applicable by law.
I've been koola, and I somehow managed to write code so bad that it softlocked my entire computer for three minutes straight.
(Terraria isn't 2D Minecraft; Minecraft is 3D Terraria.)
[img width=480 height=501]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-07-16_stcc_ep_048_-_raiden.jpg[/img]
In Episode 048, Addicted and MetalFRO pick apart Seibu Kaihatsu's flagship game Raiden, to kick off our Summer Of Raiden event! What makes this game tick? We try to get to the bottom of it, and figure out what made it so popular, and have such lasting appeal.
Listen to the episode right here on RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-07-16_stcc_ep_048_-_raiden.mp3
Check out our Linktree page to see all the podcast feeds to find your preferred service:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19666.0
Thanks for listening!
I'm back with what is probably my biggest and most ambitious cover yet! I first played Xenoblade Chronicles a couple of years ago via the Definitive Edition that was released on Switch. After hearing about all the hype for years, I felt a little let down by the game, but I still enjoyed it. The soundtrack is excellent though, so it was only a matter of time before I covered something from it. I hope you all enjoy this one!
Back with the initial batch of articles I wanted to write was an article about Miitopia. I have given Miitopia a mention in my first article, but I wanted to write a whole article about it. Now, I love Miitopia and think it's a great game, but I soon found there was very little to actually write about. Usually when I write an article, I pick subject matter that I can get a good few paragraphs out of at least, but Miitopia just never gave me more than like 5 sentences.
Miitopia is a sequel (/spinoff?) of Tomadachi Life, and with Tomadachi Life, I have more I can say about it because I have played the game A TON over the last two months or so.
I have seen people try to liken Tomadachi Life to Animal Crossing, (and have even done it myself occasionally), but I think these two games are vastly different, and there's barely anything Tomadachi Life really relates to. I even had some difficulty coming up with the tags for this article.
In Tomadachi Life, you invite Miis into this island of yours and solve their problems. The more problems you solve, the more XP you get, which can lead to more levels. That's... literally it. Besides a few extra modes such as the turn-based RPG thing you can play once a day (it is my personal belief that this is what inspired Nintendo to do a full RPG of), Quirky Questions, where you ask the islanders raise-your-hand polls where you can fill in the blank, and Judgement Bay, basically a digital coin toss with your Miis on either side, there's little else to do in the game.
It is this emptiness that gets me addicted. I want to solve all their problems and get their XP up. Worth noting is that their is several different problems to solve and different varieties for pretty much every problem. Such problems include hunger, romance, and friendship problems, with a few specific asks thrown in there sometimes.
This game, with its XP and leveling system, gives you the satisfaction of seeing something you've been waiting days for to be fulfilled, levels gained, or uniqueness experienced, on occasion, which is why I think it is very addicting to me. I play it every morning to see the little news broadcast, get my daily islander donations, and fix my Miis' daily problems.
I've been koola, and Nintendo could make a lot of money from turning Tomadachi Life into a mobile game.
(Oh wait, Miitomo existed?)
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
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