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I don’t even know what this game is, but I love it.
Nostalgia is a powerful force, pulling you towards memories of your youth that seem so charming and innocent. It’s something we love to bask in and dream about for hours. Hearing someone wax on about their own tales of yore can be less than thrilling, though, if you grew up in a different time or a different culture. We’ve all been stuck – bored – listening to endless droning about someone’s glory days that we just couldn’t relate to. Which is why I am completely baffled that the 1970s Japanese summer vacation nostalgia trip, Attack of the Friday Monsters, kept me engrossed from start to finish and filled me with the same warmth I feel when I look back on my own childhood memories.
Poor puzzles and clunky controls can't keep the Damrey down.
Is it possible to simultaneously love and hate a game? The Starship Damrey certainly makes a compelling case for such a sentiment. On one hand, it borrows many of the less desirable traits of classic PC adventure games, but on the other, it neatly melds an excellent sense of atmosphere and humor to keep you consistently interested. Despite the combination of a complete lack of cerebral puzzles and clunky controls, there’s something intrinsically alluring about this unabashedly short game.
You must roll an 18 or higher to enjoy this game. Roll 1 D20. Add an additional D10 if you enjoy RPGs in general. Additionally, add 1 D8 if you enjoy JRPGs, 1 D6 if you like tabletop RPGs, 1 D6 for western RPGs, and 1 D4 for MMORPGs. Finally, add +2 to your total if you’ve ever been LARPing.
Have you ever played a tabletop RPG? If not, the formula in my abstract may sound like some sort of foreign language to you. Essentially, a tabletop RPG is a lot like a video game RPG but instead of a computer calculating random numbers, dice rolls determine all your actions. Will your attack hit? Roll some dice according to a formula. How much damage will it do? Roll another set of dice. Will the attack be critical? Roll again. You get the idea. You honestly can’t even eat a snack without rolling for initiative. It’s this problem that gave rise to the digital version of the RPG, which replaces dice rolls with random numbers generated by a computer.
Join Oliver in the wondrous world of Ni no Kuni.
Available now exclusively for the PlayStation 3.
If you didn't have enough stress at your day job…
If you noticed the developer on Aero Porter, your interest may have immediately piqued. Vivarium, which should be synonymous with Yoot Saito, helmed creation of this second entry in Level5’s Guild01 series. Like his previous works, Seaman and Odama, Aero Porter is an odd beast that’s fascinating in concept, but rather painful in execution. Aero Porter is not fun – but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to be. Saito pulls no punches; he’s very up front with the fact that you’re going to be running the baggage sorting at an upstart airport and it’s very much your job. And jobs entail work, which is exactly what Aero Porter feels like.
Get your hands on the highly anticipated Level-5 RPG this week.
Level-5’s Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is one of next year’s most sought after Playstation 3 titles. For those curious about its premise, you might be happy to know that Namco Bandai has announced a playable demo that will be released tomorrow, Tuesday, December 4th in North American. The demo will hit Europe the following day on Wednesday, December 5th.
No matter your political stance, you would think that a president that flew around and shot missiles would be awesome. Turns out it’s boring.
I thought we had moved past the era of silly touch-screen controls early in the lifespan of the DS, but apparently it still has its proponents. Grasshopper Manufacture and Level 5 have teamed up to make sure that the dying art of crappy stylus futzing stays around a little longer with their joint downloadable venture, Liberation Maiden. Maybe the controls themselves wouldn’t be so objectionable if there was some other entertainment value in the package, but as it is, Liberation Maiden is just a boring series of stylus rubbings in an anime wrapper.
Available now for the Nintendo 3DS.
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Established October 1998
