The Darkside Detective Review

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darkside detective

Our story takes us down a shadowed path. A path so dark, it needs three creams and three sugars before most people can even consider drinking it. But Detective McQueen isn’t most people. He takes his coffee black; his cases bizarre. Follow him as he takes the path leading down the rabbit hole, leading him to solve the creepy case of Malice in Wonderland.

So begins the demo of this noir adventure game, The Darkside Detective. Developed by Spooky Doorway, this point and click mystery aims to please with its pleasing aesthetics, witty storyline, and classic noir soundtrack. I’d been following the development of this game for some time, and after many months, I finally let my curiosity get the better of me. I downloaded the demo, and I wasn’t disappointed.

darkside detective noir game

The story (in the demo) is centered around Detective McQueen and his bumbling sidekick, Officer Dooley, as they crack the case of a missing girl, Jenny in Malice in Wonderland. Our 8-bit heroes stumble their way through Jenny’s house, investigating the rooms, interrogating the adults, and pocketing seemingly random items for later use. The demo can be played through within 10 – 15 minutes, so if you have some downtime and want a quick burst of enjoyment, this is definitely a title worthy of your time.

Controls and Feel

The controls are like any other point and click adventure. You point. You click. They walk. Simple. The animation is incredible – the devs made the movement so fluid and graceful that I was immediately transported back to a time when these kind of graphics were considered “cutting edge” and people actually put effort into them. Zero issues with controls and no glitches to be found whatsoever.

darkside detective gameplay and graphics

Graphics and Gameplay:

Like most beautiful pixel games, I was initially drawn to this title simply due to its gorgeous aesthetic. The game’s design is so perfectly retro that it’s almost as if this game was the pinnacle of development in the late 80s and then subsequently locked away until now. It was the little touches, I think – the way the rain fell, the tears the mother cried, the lighting of the mystic runes…all these components and more came together to make such visually pleasing graphics that made my eyes feast.

The storyline is what cemented my love for this game. While the gameplay was short, straightforward, and to the point, it was well-written and comical. No loose ends that needed to be tied up, no burning questions that demanded answers, and plenty of “wait, what?!” moments that made me laugh in disbelief. Not only are the developers great designers, they’re great writers who threw in a number of X-Files and other references for our viewing pleasure (and have the noir humor down pat).

darkside detective indie game demo

Final Thoughts:

I’ve watched many games go from an idea to a completed product, and many of them either end up being pretty decent to half-baked and horrible. Fortunately, The Darkside Detective seems to be one of the few that ended up being exactly what I wanted from this game – a snarky, pixelated point and click noir that is both visually and audibly pleasing. The storyline is surprisingly light-hearted despite the context, firmly balanced out with the wisecracks from Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley. I cannot recommend this mini-mystery enough, and since it’s only a 10 – 15 minute play, you might as well pick it up for yourself.

Takume Review: A Tale Of Two Sisters

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takume

What makes a game good? Its graphics? Its storyline? Its mechanics? Or some combination of all these components and more? What happens if one of these is missing, or didn’t quite meet expectations? Is the game necessarily bad? Or something else?

These are the questions I had after playing Takume. A free-to-play game created by Talecrafter, the title was one I had followed closely on Twitter, eager for its release. I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous graphics and mystical nature that surrounded the game. I simply couldn’t wait to play it.

takume point and click adventure game

Players take on the role of Takume, a young girl in a mysterious land. The game itself is something close to a point-and-click adventure, although walking simulator would also describe this title. It can be played through in its entirety within five minutes, so it’s really worth it to play for yourself if you are interested.

Controls and Feel:

The controls were extremely simple – WASD keys would move Takume, and clicking interacted with the world around her. There were no instructions posted on how to move the character, but that’s 100% all you need to know as there are no further controls to utilize. Everything moved fluidly and gracefully without any issues.

Graphics and Gameplay:

The graphics are gorgeous. This is what initially drew me to the game. There is something so beautiful about the character design, environment, colors, shadowing…literal pixel perfection. I am absolutely in love with these graphics and they are truly the crowning achievement of the game.

takume indie game

Unfortunately, the gameplay was a little confusing. I don’t want to get into too much detail since, again, it’s a free game and five minutes long, but the storyline became far too convoluted for its capabilities. It introduced too many items and people that seemed arbitrary at best – unnecessary was more like it. The moral of the story provided some great life lessons, but…something was off. Be it the storyline or the plot progression, I’m not sure, but I finished the game feeling a little unsatisfied.

Final Thoughts:

What makes a good game? I think it depends on the genre. Obviously good controls and a glitch-free game are true across all boards, but some games don’t require a storyline or good graphics to be deemed great. Where the graphics of Takume exceeded expectations, the storyline fell short. And in a genre where story matters, Takume didn’t quite earn the right to consider itself a “great” game. Beautiful? Yes. Breathtaking? Certainly. Good? …it’s five minutes long. I’ll let you decide for yourself if it deserves that particular adjective. As for me, I remain unsatisfied, yet undecided.

Gunkatana: Really shouldn’t be running with that

Action Arcade Featured PC Reviews Steam
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gunkatana

Preface

This is an early demo. This review will be based on its current state. Certain bugs and issues will hopefully be fixed. Please keep this in mind.

gunkatana level 1

Gameplay

Welcome to a fast-paced, carnage-filled, neon battle arena known as Gunkatana. The combat is really satisfying with the classic one-shot-one-kill rule to add extra tension. You have a laser blaster that shoots ricochet bullets. The aiming isn’t the best because it always shoots the direction that you’re facing, and you can’t rotate your character without moving as well, but I almost forgot I even had the blaster after a few minutes of using the katana. There’s a spin move that slices all surrounding foes, a dash attack that can affect more than one player, and an attack only performed while riding a turbo rail. Riding on turbo rails zooms you around each of the two arenas, and you automatically slash through anyone in your path.

There are currently two game-modes: Blood Credits and Deathmatch. Deathmatch is just what you’d expect, so I spent most of my time with the Blood Credits mode. It’s not much different than deathmatch, but defeated bots and players drop a pile of credits of various shapes and colors. It’s much more satisfying than just turning enemies into bloody puddles in deathmatch mode. Both modes are accompanied by some awesome “retrowave” tunes that really add to the experience. You can play with a controller or a keyboard and mouse, but I mainly used a controller, and you can play with AI or up to three other friends/enemies. The current AI for the bots is okay, but every once in awhile they would all just give up for a good thirty seconds and sit idly while I sliced and diced them.

gunkatana rails

Verdict

I’ll say it again, the combat is really satisfying. Speeding around and slashing other players is intense and relies heavily on skill and reflexes. Unfortunately, this demo leaves me wanting more. It’s worth a try if you have some friends to play it with. The aiming could be better, but shooting a gun is nowhere near as fun as swinging around your katana to the funky techno soundtrack

River City Ransom Underground: The fight of your life

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River City Random Underground – The beating you’ve been waiting for since 90’

It’s so hard nowadays to find good modern beat em’ up games. Often times when digging through a somewhat limited collection of titles, I just give up and end up going back to the same ones over and over again. Classics like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Double Dragon, and River City Ransom (to name a few), became the go-to names in the beat em’ up genre for their ferocity, challenge level, characters, design, and catchy as hell musical scores. These are by far some of my favorite games of all time. With so many phenomenal titles released that hit hard with 90’s retro gamers, and the only title really living up to this incredibly high standard (Scott Pilgram Vs The World), why has this genre become so neglected lately? That may be a question for another day, but if you feel the way I do about beat em’ ups, then you’ll be happy to know that the team over at Conatus Creative intends to change all of that with their release of River City Ransom Underground.

As the “officially licensed North American follow-up to one of the most beloved RPG beat em’ ups of all time”, River City Ransom Underground was funded on Kickstarter on September 9th 2013. This long awaited retro revival puts players once again on the rough and tumble urban streets of River City. Playing as famed characters Alex and Ryan, and a host of other playable characters, River City Ransom Underground aims to capture the spirit of this classic street fighter with a host of new features. Beyond features the game has some of great names working on it as well. Industry veterans like Yoshihisa Kishimoto (director of Double Dragon), and Rich Vreeland (aka Disasterpiece – FEZ, Runner2, Hyper Light Drifter) are also working to mold this game into a unique experience that old school and new gamers will love.

Features

A worthy sequel needs to pay homage to the original, and this game looks to achieve just that. River City Ransom Underground will include a plethora of items, weapons, unique enemies, fighting moves/animations, playable characters, unique bosses, and RPG elements that will to add a ton of excitement and button mashing replay value to the games original format. This means tons more things to do and baddies to beat down in your travels. River City will also be much larger than anything you’ve seen in the franchise before. With tons of different buildings and areas to explore, we can expect no shortage of things to do in River City. RCRU will also feature both single player and online/local multiplayer modes which are exciting for fans of arcade style play, as well as online gaming enthusiasts too. For me, the inclusion of online multiplayer is a great addition. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World did not include this till years later and I personally felt that it held the game back from adding more replay value to the game. For closer look at River City Ransoms features, check out the breakdown below.

From the River City Ransom Underground STEAM Greenlight page –

  • Over 100 hand-drawn levels
  • 8+ Heroes, each with dozens of unique fighting moves
  • An open world where you fight, shop, and upgrade your characters’ abilities
  • 10 tenacious and varied enemy gangs to conquer
  • Local or online multiplayer co-op campaign story
  • Local or online multiplayer arena fighting mode
  • Super-responsive peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology

 

Final Thoughts

Though River City Ransom Underground has been tied up in development for 3 years, the game has always looked like the perfect successor to River City Ransom. Unlike many other Kickstarter projects that go dark after obtaining funding, Conatus Creative has always tried their best to update backers and their audience with new information about the games progress. This kind of transparency goes along way with setting the expectations of your backers and their overall interest in the project. I’ve personally been following this game since its Kickstarter launched and could not be more excited for this games release. It seems to have all the components of a truly memorable and exciting retro beat em’ up with all the modern features that would make a game like this a success in 2016.  With pixel art graphics, fun animations, online/local multiplayer, and nostalgia for days, River City Ransom Underground could just be the modern day savior of the beat em’ up genre.

Dust off those black leather fingerless gloves. Throw on your patched demin jacket. Prepare yourself. River City Ransom Underground is scheduled for release on Steam on February 27th 2017.

Will River City Ransom Underground be the savior of the beat em’ genre? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments section below!

UPDATE: 2/2/2017

Finally, after 3 years of development we now have a hard release date for River City Ransom Underground. In a Kickstarter backer update released yesterday the development team over at Conatus Creative, announced that the final release date for River City Ransom Underground would be February 27, 2017.  This love letter to Technos Japan title River City Ransom has had fans and backers waiting patiently to see more, only to receive radio silence from the Conatus during the games development. Conatus Creative’s initial Kickstarter pitch promised a game that will not only deliver on the nostalgic qualities of the original franchise, but would introduce modern gameplay mechanics that will keep things fun an re-playable for hours on end. This will include local and online multiplayer campaign mode, local or online area mode, awesome fighting moves and animations, unique level design, and many characters to choose from. It will be interesting to see how backers react in steam reviews to the high expectations that Conatus Creative have set for themselves with this game. With that said, I know that i’m super stoked on this game and will likely pick it up day 1 no matter what.

Check out the new launch trailer below!

Mandagon Review: A Father’s Sacrifice

Action Adventure Featured PC Reviews Steam
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mandagon title screen

Wow.

Every once in awhile, you find a game that resonates with you on a spiritual level. A game that entices the mind, pleases the senses, and awakens the soul. As cliche as it sounds, it’s true – the medium is capable of helping the gamer reach a higher plane of understanding and can really move the player emotionally. There are very few games I’ve played that do this naturally; Shadow of the Colossus and N.E.R.O. immediately come to mind, but after that I struggle with finding more of this caliber. It’s not often that we think of free-to-play games as being worth playing, and we certainly don’t think of putting them in the same category as a game as valued and praised as SOTC. Yet Mandagan proves that a game doesn’t need to cost a cent to be worth its weight in gold – a must play sans the pay.

Mandogan, developed and published by Blind Sky Studios, is the perfect marriage of Tibetan theology and pixel art. The storyline is not explained, but inferred from interactions from stone relics or statues. Each statue you come across recites a verse of a poem, and through this poem you are able to determine what the story is about. Without giving too much away, the story goes that you, a small stone statue capable of moving, were once a father to a sickly daughter, and you asked to take her place so that she may live. Without being overly dramatic, it’s touching and poignant in a way that surprised me.

mandogan gameplay pixelart

Gameplay

The aim of the game isn’t very clear from the beginning, but it soon becomes apparent: you must collect six tablets and place them in the proper altars in order to remove one lock from a seemingly important door.

Controls

The controls are very straightforward: WASD keys are directional, spacebar is jump, and “E” initiates action. The graphics are beautifully done with gorgeous aesthetics and vibrant colors. The animation is fluid – nothing sticks, nothing jerks – everything runs beautifully. The music is a perfect fit to the visuals; audio effects that sound mystical and deep are interspersed here and there alongside the songs, further setting the mood to be mysterious and ethereal.

There is a “final boss” at the end, but I won’t go any further than that. As this game can be beaten within an hour and is completely free, I’ll let you decide for yourself how much you love this game since you really have no excuse to not play it.

mandogan indie game

Final Thoughts

What I enjoyed the most were the little touches the developers added that weren’t necessary but definitely enhanced the feel of the game. When the character was travelling on stone, the water was opaque. Should the character fall into the water, the liquid would suddenly become transparent and the world above became a bit more distorted. The background featured buildings off in the distance to add to the depth of the scene. Occasionally, wind chimes would billow in the breeze and fire would flicker and sway as wisps in the wind. The setting and mood were absolutely stunning – the developers knew exactly what they were doing.

Mandagon proves that free-to-play games are still worth our time. They can often be shovelware, downloaded and forgotten like yesterday’s save, but in this case, the opposite is true. I only spent about an hour of my life on Mandagon, but I’ll remember its impact for far longer than that. The game truly is a work of art, and one I cannot recommend highly enough!

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