Blog, Blog, Bloq

 Had a few things swirling around in my mind this week. And the winner of it all was the one and only Piku from Pikuniku. There's just something about seeing the little, red creature that brings unbridled joy. So, the focus of the piece is to look at the appeal of Piku, and a few other characters like Piku that I enjoy. But first, I must answer the question of, "Why Piku?" Originally, the "Why" question was answered when I saw the little guy dancing to some nice tunes. However, after playing the game, I can say that this answer stayed the same. With the additional element of it's fun to be Piku, and in some cases Niku. There's not much more to it than that. Simplicity is the key to the secret sauce of Piku, and I'm going to break down what that means to me in this instance.  And what better way to do that, than to look at Piku's design. A sleek, little red bean with two legs and two black dots for eyes. Just tons of personality on its face, with ...

 The fast turn around of February means that I have less time to figure out what to talk about. But it just so happens that I do have something in mind. And that's Remakes in Media. This topic has become more and more prevalent in recent years as movies, games, and shows are recycled and redone. And to be clear, this is specifically about remaking, and not rebooting. But even the examples I have in mind skirt that line, so who really knows exactly. Regardless, while it's nice to get a shiny new coat paint on an old favorite. Sometimes I just feel tired looking at how the material gets treated. So, the goal for today is to talk about some media that I have engaged with and their remakes.  For some context, the reason I wanted to talk about remakes again revolved around the rejected Bloodborne Remake that the now defunct Bluepoint Games had pitched. Like, it fucking sucks that the studio got shutdown, but I can't understand wanting to remake a game like Bloodborne. If anythin...

 This time around I had a couple of ideas floating in my head. And what I landed on was a journey. A journey to finally hunker down and complete not just one game, but two. Those games are Conker's Bad Fur Day, and its remake, Conker: Live & Reloaded. Two titles where I never made it past the first couple of hours in my previous attempts. Yet now I am stronger. A human with a better tolerance for general gaming bullshit. Because that's what Conker was for me. Games in the Rare catalogue that weren't necessarily bad, but they also weren't good.  This may sound harsh at the outset because, what's wrong with Conker? Each one functions as they should right? For the most part, yes. There wasn't really anything egregious that breaks the Conkers. BFD has some friction due to some old school jank, and Live & Reloaded fixes much of that. But that's just it. The games just do their jobs. Conker, and his world may be colorful, but playing the game was just too ...

 Seeing as how the month is October, I wanted to cover something Horror. Or in this case, something Horror-adjacent. The first one that I landed on was Mortal Kombat. But not just any Mortal Kombat. I am going to cover the funniest entry, Mortal Kombat 4. A divisive entry for people as some can find the diamonds in the rough, while others simply can't stand it. For me, I love this game. I put it up there with SoulCalibur II as my favorite fighting games. Yet where SoulCalibur II succeeds on almost all of its fronts. From the presentation to the way that game feels and flows. It's why SoulCalibur II has always stood as a gold standard for me. This is especially true when you look at other iconic 3D Fighters.  But Mortal Kombat 4 is not any of that. The game on its surface doesn't appear to be much different from its 2D predecessors. The major difference really just involves the new 3D stylings. So, you could absolutely arrive at this conclusion if you've only spent a few...

 The time to write has come once again. And I was really unsure of what to tackle. With so many different interests and no real direction, I was kind of stumped. But then as I was looking at some music to listen to, I remembered Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Not in the sense of like an old friend, but because I had recently gotten to see some Third Strike, in-person, being played for money. It makes me happy each time. Even with my limited knowledge, I can enjoy the game for the technical skill and decision making that goes into each match. Like, the way people play each character, and how they approach each situation with them differs based on the player. You never see two Kens play the same way in a mirror match. No amount of sitting back and gaining meter through whiffed normals is gonna speed the game along, because at some point you have to make a decision. And that's where a lot of the excitement comes from. That quick reflexive nature makes each punish matter.  So, ...

 The Metal Gear brainworms, or nanomachines if you will, have persisted. This has all culminated from the fact that I have finished the main story for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. A game that I never want to play again. The issues far outweigh any joy for me. It lacks that fun videogame feel that I loved in previous titles. The limited loadout in the most expansive title just didn't work for me. MGS: Peace Walker could get away with this because that's a PSP game at its core, and not an over-budget console title. Not to mention, the story beats just didn't work for me. Skull Face was a terrible villain, and then the game fell even flatter in his absence.  While I think the problem starts with MGS4, I find MGSV to be a big nothing burger of a game. None of the character conflicts really matter, and none of the new characters are of any worth. This was a prequel game, and the knowledge of the future just negated any hope for a future appearance from any newbies. But ...

 With the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, I've felt compelled to continue my journey into the series. So, I have recently finished MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots and MGS: Peace Walker. And my thoughts are mixed. On the one hand, I like the gameplay of MGS4 for the most part but not the writing. Yet with Peace Walker, I was satisfied on most fronts with some minor issues.  Like, the problem with MGS4 has nothing to do with the long cutscenes. The problem lies in the rewrites of previous game knowledge in order to make this game work. These new revelations even made other characters worse off. What makes this funnier, is that Peace Walker seems to largely ignore any information from that game. To be two years removed from each other and share little to no DNA is one of the best bits in the series. Peace Walker feels like the follow-up to MGS 3: Snake Eater, while MGS4 feels like the alternate reality that others want to ignore.  But, I am not here to just shit ...

Recently, I decided to finally finish Syberia: The World Before. The fourth installment in the Syberia franchise, and the last one from series creator Benoît Sokal, before he passed away on May 28, 2021. So, it took me a minute to work up the courage to finish the game that I started two years ago. It's funny to think about this because I had only finished the original trilogy like a month or two before Sokal had passed away. The question to be asked is, why did I feel so deeply for something in such a short time? The answer lies in the writing. Syberia 1 is a point-and-click adventure game from 2002 that was developed by Microids. This first outing had some issues when it came to movement and visibility, yet the environments and characters were so enriching. It made me miss the wide usage of pre-rendered backgrounds. Not to mention the wide usage of automatons and other mechanical works that defined the series as a whole. But to get back on track, the draw for me was how engaging ...