This week's game is P.O.D.: Proof of Destruction, a hectic single screen shoot 'em up for Commodore computers (and the ZX Spectrum) with a bit of Jeff Minter energy. Simple as it may be, it's got ideas, and those ideas give it a distinct feel:
This week we're putting the bullet into bullet hell with the hit SHMUP roguelike shooter Star of Providence!
Originally titled "Monolith", this NES-inspired modern retro shooter has it all: ghosts, mages, cybernetic constructs, giant spinning razor weapons, and of course: a talking cat.
A quaint little DOS shoot'em up by Pixel Painters Corporation.
It plays similar to Gradius but it seems way more fair (though if you crank the difficulty that's on you)
The eponymous Xatax are an alien species of some sort that consumes planetary resources and assimilates living things. Gee, I think I've seen this somewhere. (cough, Borg, cough)
Anyway neat little game, was glad to have played it.
I've thought about video game genres a lot; I'm always trying to determine what makes something a "shooter" or a "racer". It beguiles me when our names for things don't always correctly describe the gameplay. When does a "shoot em up" become a "beat em up"?
For this #ThrowbackThursday, let's look at level 2 of shootsansnom, a shoot'em up I made while still studying more than 10 years ago, now part of Plisitol Jam Collection
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
August 4, 2023 - Day 216 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 235
Game: My Friend Pedro
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 7, 2019
Library Date: Dec 16, 2022
Unplayed: 231d (7m19d)
Playtime: 20m
You're on your own kid, just you and the psychotic banana.
My Friend Pedro is a hyperkinetic shoot-em-up platformer.
You're woken up in a mob basement. unarmed, by a talking, floating... banana; I guess the banana is Pedro.
Pedro instructs you on how to navigate the levels, with walljumping, crouch-rolling, bullet-time, split shooting.
A bit like John Wick, with less coordination, a ridiculous outfit, and a talking banana.
You navigate each level via a series of different obstacles, with the ultimate goal (at least at first?) of killing "Mitch the Butcher", mob boss, restauranteur, and cannibal?
Apparently you're meant to be the meat.
The game is a frenetic ballet of trying to press a whole lot of controller buttons at the right time, and even if you don't checkpoints seem to be plentiful, so it's possible to suck and still make it through the levels on normal mode.
At the end of the level you're given a rating; C, C, B, so far, so I guess I'm improving?
In any case, this year has improved my controller mastery by far.