Thoughts on Games Played

[A Black Falcon]

I've been thinking of making a thread like this again for a while, and I've finally gotten around to it. The idea here is to have a thread for posts about games I've just tried or played and want to say something about, but don't think deserve a thread yet. I know that there have been threads like this before, but not for a while.


I'm going to start by saying a little about the Vita. My most important impression about the system got a thread already, that it has very few games that aren't available elsewhere, and really the main reason to get it is to play games you already have on PC (or maybe console) portably. It does have some exclusives though, and a few games that are only on PS4 and Vita which I'll play here since I don't have a PS4 or plan to get one anytime soon. Most notably in that latter category I really want Summon Night 6, though I don't have it yet.

As for games I do have though:

TxK - This is Jeff Minter's Vita-exclusive shooter. This game pretty much just is straight Tempest 2000 with a few names changed, so I can see why it got Jeff Minter in more trouble with 'Atari' than Space Giraffe did; that game is of course also Tempest-inspired, but it has some new ideas which changes the gameplay in noticeable ways. This game doesn't do that. So, Atari went after him and while this game is still available, his attame to the PC have been sadly blocked, making this a Vita exclusive. For a big Tempest 2000 fan like me, this game is a definite must-play and yes, it's great! It's classic Tempest 2000, but with nice graphics and new levels. It's awesome and a lot of fun, and at only $10 it's well worth it. The game is tiny too, so even though it's download only and a Vita game the size is not much of a problem.

Exist Archive - I don't think I had heard of this game before, but it's a game from Tri-Ace with gameplay inspired by Valkyrie Profile, and a somewhat isekai-ish anime story about people who seem to have died in the real world and been pulled into a fantasy land. The plot is decent and fortunately isn't really isekai (which is a genre full of really terrible mangas/animes), but the gameplay and exploration ar the main draws here for sure. Dungeons are side-scrolling, but they have multiple layers and are fun to explore. The battle system's good too, though the difficulty level is unfortunately low. The game looks nice and plays well, though, so I like it so far.

Mod Nation Road Trip - While probably better than the PSP game, this kart racer is, lie its predecessors, quite average. Sure I've only done a couple of races, but I didn't see much here to keep me going. There is plenty of content and customization, but the controls and gameplay are quite generic.

Operation Abyss - This game is a decent-to-good first-person dungeon crawler. It's no Etrian Odyssey, but it seems fun. I'll definitely play more.

Ridge Racer - This game has good graphics and standard (ie, decent but I have issues with the drifting) Ridge Racer handling, but is brought down with its total absence of real single player content. Basically, this game only has two modes: single race, or online. There is no campaign, unlike the PSP Ridge Racer games. There's nothing to unlock ingame, all unlockables are things you have to purchase separately. It comes with only a couple of tracks built in, and you have to buy the rest as DLC. While some games can get away with this heavy multiplayer focus, this game definitely is not among them; I'm sure it never had the kind of online community that would be required to make the design make any sense at all.


I'm sure I will say a bit more about more Vita games soon. That last one reminds me of another game I want to mention though...


Micro Machines World Tour (Xbox One, also available for PC and PS4) - This game brought back the Micro Machines franchise after over a decade, and as a fan of the series since the first one I had to get it despite the bad reviews the game got. And playing it,. I'm torn. On the one hand, the graphics here are fantastic! The cars in this game look much more like real Micro Machines vehicles than anything I've seen in a videogame before. The controls aren't the best and take some getting used to, but they're fine once you adjust. The other gameplay issue of note I want to mention is that the game has a weapon system now, making races more chaotic than ever before. It's mostly fun, but it gets frustrating when you repeatedly get hit right before the finish line. Still, it's mostly a good game, ignoring the serious flaws in the second paragraph below. I like playing Micro Machines World Tour for sure. There are a good number of tracks in this game too. If they had only included a single player game, I'd definitely be praising it here!

Unfortunately though, this is yet another game that has no single player campaign. Instead, this game has randomized races in a couple of game modes, Overwatch style but with overhead car racing, and loot boxes as a "progression " system. Yes, it's Micro Machines with lootboxes at the core of the experience, and that's not good. Sure, you're just unlocking cosmetic stuff with these loot boxes, but it's still a bad, exploitative system. Unlike Overwatch, however, nobody is playing this game online because it didn't sell, so the exclusive focus on online multiplayer wrecks the game. There are bots to race against, so you can play the game at least, but there are NO options beyond choosing a mode -- standard race, classic Micro Machines battle, arena battle with weapons, and such. You can't choose your track, that's random. And while there are a bunch of tracks, the randomizer mostly seems to pick the same few over and over. You can't choose the difficulty of your AI opponents, either, and the one difficulty level they have is fairly high, so this game will be frustrating and you'll be hit out of the lead a lot.

So overall, most people just passed on this game and called it not good, but I'm honestly kind of sad for this game. It's so close to being a great return to form for a classic series I like a lot... but because of some very bad game design choices, it's not. I still don't regret getting it, but only serious Micro Machine fans should even consider it.