PixlBit

Games Beaten

-Turrican (Switch)

Turrican is a classic, they say, and this first one is pretty solid. The controls are responsive, the graphics are pretty good, and I like the music, but it’s got a few quirks I don’t like. I’m not a fan of the European-style sprawling levels, though it’s fine. Hazards are sometimes hard to differentiate from the background and your jump is unusually huge. The bosses, in general, feel kind of cheap. But my main complaint is that you can’t shoot up, only forward. This is always annoying but especially grievous on the two vertical shmup levels…where you can only shoot side to side. More than anything I hope that is changed in the sequels.

-Turrican II (Switch)

Turrican II doubles down on everything from the first game. The levels are bigger but I find their layout haphazard. Your armaments are mostly the same but the limit on using the ball form was removed. GOOD. You still can’t shoot up or down. BAD. This is most egregious in the shmup levels. The music is great and the graphics are definitely improved. None of the bosses are great but they’re a big step up from the first game. This is a same-but-better kind of sequel and that’s fine. I just wish more than anything else that you had Contra-style control of WHERE you shoot.

-Super Turrican (Switch)

For me, an American without much experience with early European platform or action games, Super Turrican is the best Turrican yet. It was also really easy but it controlled well and had a reasonable jump height. And while you still can’t shoot up or down, the levels feel designed with that in mind—a first for the series! There were no shmup levels and the whole thing was pretty short but it was fun to play. It LOOKS like an SNES game, if you know what I mean, and the music upholds the high standards of the series.

-Mega Turrican (Switch)

After Super Turrican brought the series more in line with my gaming tastes, I had high hopes for Mega Turrican and…it’s fine. A little of the original’s verticality creeps into some of the later stages and the levels in general don’t feel designed to take advantage of your abilities. You can get through the whole game without activating your ball form, for instance, and the addition of a grappling hook is cool but not needed till late in the game and it’s clunky to use. Bosses were a step backward. The game is still fun to play but I think I’d recommend Super Turrican over this one.

NOTE: These four games come from the collection Turrican Flashback, which I got earlier this year. There is a sequel to Super Turrican (I'll let you guess what it is called) and I wish that one was included in this collection but otherwise these are all the Turrican games worth playing. It was fun to play them so close together and see how the series changed over time.

Games Bought

September was a digital acquisitions month for me. At one point I nearly bought the physical cartridge of Japanese visual novel Raging Loop (Switch) but ended up going with something else. When it went on sale for $2.99 on the eShop, I decided to spring for it. I also bought Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (Switch), which has a weird voxel art style but is supposed to be pretty good. There is a good chance my game group will play it once we decide we're done with Monster Hunter Rise.

I also grabbed all three PS+ games for PS5. Viewfinder is a puzzle game where you navigate a 3D space by taking pictures of things and then superimposing them on reality and making them real. It's all about perspective, I guess. Looks cool. Psychonauts 2 is supposedly even better than the first game...which I should still play. I have a copy somewhere. And then there is Stardew Valley, which I assume needs no introduction.

Games Being Played

-Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

This is my first Ys game and I am really enjoying it. The action combat is neither braindead nor very demanding (on Normal, at least) and exploring the island you're stranded on has been fun. Also, it's hecka anime.

-Destiny 2 (PS5)

I kind of fell off this because we were out of town and I need to get back to the campaign but my controller has started drifting and it's soooooo annoying.

-Picross: Lord of the Nazarick (Switch)

Haven't played this as much because of Ys VIII but I do need my Picross fix.

-Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)

We have finished all the main story lines but there is more we can do. Basically, I am waiting for my friends to be ready to move on lol.