Category: Gaming

Super Mario Galaxy – The Best Mario Game Come at Me:

Posted on by in Gaming

As someone with a girlfriend, if my girlfriend was constantly carried off by a giant turtle and she did not get a restraining order taken out on that dude, then our relationship would be over faster than a Tik Tok. (Side note cannot believe I just wrote that sentence, I feel so old). So, I feel like Mario really needs to either find a new relationship or invest in some private security because come on dude, some of these kidnappings could have been easily prevented.

As baffling as the plot of the Mario games are (if it can even be called a plot), he is a beloved franchise and is 99% of the world’s first guess when asked about video games mascots. As much as I enjoy platformers, personally I never really got into the Mario games as a kid. I think my main bulk of play time in the plumber’s world was in the multiplayer minigames in the Mario Bros game for the DS, mostly because it was the one game that myself, my cousins and my sister all knew how to play.

Who knew I needed to race penguins?

We have talked about Mario Odyssey on the site before but other than that, I have not seen the need to talk about the many other instalments in the seemingly endless franchise. I do not need typing lessons or to have pills prescribed to me by someone who did not go to medical school. However, there is one set of Mario games that I have a soft spot for – the Mario Galaxy games. Released for the Nintendo Wii, these games formed a large part of my childhood and were the first games that my sister would play with me.

As much as I adore my sister, video games are not her forte. Case in point, I let her have a go playing some Spiderman a few months back and her main achievement was to jump up and down the street like a weirdly dressed frog. It was mostly to piss me off but still, the point stands. So, the multiplayer aspects of the Mario Galaxy game (although limited) were perfect for us to play together, without resorting to murdering one another.

So…. you like jazz?

Taking any series and sending it into space, can make or break the franchise. Just look at the Friday the 13th series! Why on earth would you send Jason into space? If humanity had mastered inter-space travel, you think they would be able to put down one dude with a murder fetish. Thankfully, Mario in space was worth the pocket money that I spent on it. Though if my wrists start cracking by the time, I turn 30, then maybe I played too much of it. The introduction of motion controls into modern gaming must have really boosted physiotherapists businesses.

After playing Odyssey, it really feels like Galaxy was the blueprint that they based their most successful game off. Exploring different worlds with unique themes, collecting stars/moons for completing odd tasks, trying out new powers (be that through possession or consumption of odd mushrooms), even improving your ship as your adventure progresses. Even the concept of a world changing after you beat it for the first time was seen in the various comet types in Galaxy, only to become entirely new sections in Odyssey. Thankfully, the cosmic clones have stayed in the TRASH WHERE THEY BELONG.

THESE FREAKING CLONES. I SWEAR TO GOD.

More than anything, the Galaxy games were a kind of escape. I got to explore new places, try new things, and just revel in the excitement that those goofy minigames brought me. The age that I played those games, were when my battles with self-esteem and anxiety began. To have something that I could escape into and that my big sister could enjoy with me, was a support system that I did not know that I needed.

Anyways, I will go back to writing my dissertation project now.

CaitlinRC

Animal Crossing New Horizons – Being Outside Whilst Staying Inside:

Posted on by in Gaming, Real Life

Much like every person on the planet with a Nintendo Switch, I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing New Horizons over the last month and a half. As it’s release date was scheduled for after my show season was over (for those who don’t know, I was production manager for a play for my university’s drama society), I’d pre-ordered it as a treat, to play as a wind down from the rewarding but incredibly stressful, show weeks. Thankfully, my show went without a hitch but the other play I was doing lighting for, had to stop due to the lockdown measures. So, New Horizons became my isolation game.

WHAT A HECKIN GOOD BOI

I have talked about Animal Crossing before on the site, with it being the second ever article posted on Mind Games (mind blowing, I know). So, if I repeat myself at all, I apologise! However, in traditional Mind Games fashion – there is more I would like to say. Specifically, about how New Horizons has kept me (moderately) sane during these trying times. If you will indulge me dear reader, by enjoying what is probably the thousandth article you have seen posted about the game. I may be no Eurogamer but hopefully something I say will strike a chord with you.

More than anything, what New Horizons provides for me is a sense of normality. Even if we were not in the middle of a world-wide pandemic, my world is at a turning point. I am graduating from university, starting a new job, and moving to a new place. Everything in my life is changing and that is a terrifying thought. So, having a game with a set routine, simple mechanics, and plenty of opportunities to make the island my own, is a great source of comfort.

This guy has been my nemesis since Wild World and I swear to Isabelle, I’ll sink his ship.

When I get up each day, I get my cereal and a fresh mug of coffee. I will watch whatever YouTube videos tickle my fancy, be that livestreams that I missed or compilations from my favourite shows. Then, I boot up Animal Crossing. I will grab the four fossils, hunt down the money rock and freshly grown money tree (who knew that there was a magic money tree), check for any visitors (or invaders like Redd) and water my flower fields. If I am missing any bugs or fish then I will go for a wander, tool in hand. Afterwards, I go about the rest of my day – maybe returning to my island in the evening once my work is done.

It becomes a constant. Others see it as tedious and repetitive, a game with no real end goal or objective – not worth the time investment. To me, it is a life ring that I cling to in a storm. In the words of the Lutece twins from Bioshock Infinite, it is all a matter of perspective. What I see will always be different to what you see. It is when you accept these different viewpoints, that you see the truth value of games like Animal Crossing in trying times like this.

Who needs to wait till Halloween for true horror, when Zipper is here.

Obviously, I am not the most social individual. At university, it means that I tend to avoid the traditional activities, such as club nights, pub crawls and various raves. I would rather meet a friend for coffee and go our separate ways afterwards. A couple of my closest friends have mastered the art of co-existing with me. We could be in the same room for hours, doing our own thing and neither of us will feel the need to fill the silence with awkward chatter.

The multiplayer aspect of Animal Crossing leans into the concept of co-existing. Often, I will visit a friend’s island and we will do our own thing. Be that fishing, harvesting fruit or wandering around getting to know all their villagers (and making them love you more in two minutes than the person who has known them for WEEKS). You get to talk to and enjoy the company of those friends that maybe you are in a different country from or those you cannot see due to the ongoing lockdown. It is not as good as the real thing, but people are finding creative ways to spend time with their loved ones using the capitalist raccoon’s island paradises.

WAKE UP BLATHERS I’VE GOT ANOTHER FOSSIL FOR YOU

The terraforming aspect of the game is remarkably therapeutic. Getting to mould and change your island into something that you feel genuinely proud of, is an incredibly satisfying feeling. Plus, you get to fix those weird cliff edges and oddly shaped ponds that your island starts out with. For those who cannot leave the house for the foreseeable future and those who live in an area without much greenery to enjoy in those brief daily walks for exercise purposes, getting to mould an ideal outside world, brings a little bit of joy that may be missing in their days.

Anyways, those are just a few thoughts I have had about New Horizons. I am keeping this piece short as I have a lot of university work to finish off and I do not want to repeat myself too much! I will post some pictures of my island once I finish the grand rebuilding process (scheduled for AFTER my dissertation is finished) on my Twitter so go follow me – @OurMindGames / @CaitlinRC

See you all soon,

CaitlinRC.

MINIT – This Article Will Self Destruct in 60 Seconds:

Posted on by in Gaming

When a game pops up with a time limit, that aggressively counts down in the corner of my screen, I tend to panic. Any of that calm, methodical logic, goes straight out the window and is replaced with utter panic and chaos. Even the most experienced gamers can be caught off guard by a ticking clock, switching from calm professionalism to flailing back and forth, interacting with every possible object to stop the countdown. In hindsight, it is quite funny. In the moment however, it is utterly terrifying.

So, a game based entirely around a timer mechanic? It was intriguing and anxiety inducing to say the least. MINIT is a small, indie game made by Devolver Digital. An entirely black and white, goofy adventure game that requires you to find elegant solutions to puzzles within the 60 second time limit of each “run”. You have three functions in the game – MOVE, USE OBJECT and DIE. Yes, you read that correctly. The “DIE” option acts as an instant reset button. If you mess up the required items for a puzzle or realise that you are going to run out of time, then you do not need to reload a save file or lose an hour of progress.

Slightly ominous, standing behind a old bloke with a big old sword.

MINIT reminds me of the earlier Zelda games like Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds. It focuses more on the top-down puzzle solving parts of similar adventure games, filtering it down to the core essentials. You have the key mechanic – the 60 second timer, triggered by picking up a cursed sword that was lying around (as they normally do). Your end goal is to go to the factory where the cursed swords are being manufactured and to shut it down. Naturally, that involves entering a haunted house, travelling to a desert island, exploring a temple, and trying not to get murdered by snakes. All in the span of 60 seconds.

What I find most fascinating about this game, is that I felt calm throughout it. Even when I failed at a puzzle, or ran out of time, I felt that I knew enough to improve on my next run. There was no creeping anxiety or shaking hands that normally accompany those timed situations. In hindsight, that is a rather sad thought to have. Regardless, we all know how impactful time restrictions and deadlines can be. Just look at the education system in most countries.

A good, pixelated doggo, to calm all your worries.

The exams that you sit in the UK, tend to be about two or three hours long, depending on the topic. Some subjects have multiple papers, like Maths, whilst others only have one or two papers, like Psychology. The dozens of hours that you have put into studying, the hundred odd hours that your teachers put into delivering the content, all come down to those precious minutes in the exam hall. Especially when some subjects do not use coursework to assess their students, your entire qualifications depend on how you perform over the course of a few weeks.

Academic exams were my nightmare. Even at university, they still are. No matter how much preparation I do, be that past papers, lab questions, aggressively staring at the content and hoping it will absorb into my skull, I always struggle. Often, I walk into the exam room, sit down and immediately panic and forget everything. My breathing grows rapid, my heart races and my hands and legs wont stop shaking. I take my exams in a smaller room due to anxiety and I do receive extra time, but these provisions only came when I was at university. During secondary school, I refused to admit that I had a problem. So, I would sit in that exam hall filled with over a hundred other students and suffer through, rarely achieving what I was capable of.

Spooky temple is spooky.

More often that not, it would stump my teachers. My performance in class and in my various homework assignments were always of high quality but whenever exam season came around, my grades would fall flat. We tried different revision strategies and calming techniques, but nothing seemed to work. Now that I am on medication and am working through my issues, my exams are not as bad to deal with, but they still are not great. I do not cope well in big action games that give me a countdown or I receive an instant game over. The number of times I have hurled a controller across the room due to failing a countdown scenario, is more than I would care to admit to on the internet.

MINIT provides the player with a list of achievements that they can aim for in the course of a initial playthrough, as well as challenges for those seeking a bit more difficulty in their gaming experiences. Some of them are goofy ones, like watering your dog with a watering can or talking to a mysterious ghost called Mary. It is a fascinating game for speed runners as well, considering the number of spawns you take has an impact on how “well” your run goes. The “Second Run” mode, only gives you 40 seconds on your timer, forcing you to think about your actions clearly.

I wonder what their rates are for an overnight stay.

As far as I am aware, MINIT is still on Game Pass for Xbox/PC so, give it a go if you are interested! It is a game that you can pick up easily and have a good time with, regardless of how much spare time you can dedicate to it! Ten minutes or an hour, I hope you will have a blast with it either way.

I hope you are all staying safe in these scary times and if you ever need anyone to talk to, reach out to me. Be that in the comments, through the contact page on the site or on Twitter @OurMindGames.

Wash your dang hands,

CaitlinRC.

Speed Limit – The Underground Just Got Interesting:

Posted on by in Gaming

If you’ve been following my site for a while, you’ll have noticed the frequent mention of a company called Gamechuck. I had the chance to meet a few of their team at EGX in October and have been consistently impressed with the high-quality games and hardware that they produce on a regular basis. We’ve talked about some of their older works such as Vape Escape before and recently I got to look at a preview of their newest creation – Trip the Ark Fantastic.

I’m always excited to see something new from the Gamechuck crew, so when I spotted an email in my inbox last week from them, I was excited. Their letter of love to the era of arcade games, called Speed Limit, released its trailer and demo as of today! (March 12th). It’s a high-paced, run-and-gun, action filled arcade game demo, available on Steam for you all to enjoy – click here for that – https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058280/Speed_Limit/

Watch the trailer here!

I got a little sneak view at Speed Limit when at EGX. I was terrible at it, but I enjoyed it immensely. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain:

“A daily train commute gone wrong: Speed Limit is a one take, non-stop arcade experience that never slows down. An old-school shooter boiled down to its core elements: Hard. Fast. Addictive.”

Have you ever been on the London Underground and been ambushed by dozens of soldiers dressed in full SWAT gear? Me neither. Though I probably wouldn’t be that surprised if it did happen. The Tube is known for it’s weird and whacky events after all – such as a goth and his surfboard, a satanic doll and people bringing various …adult art pieces onto the train. Seriously, I don’t know what it is about public transportation that inspires commuters to try weird and whacky things. Then again, the Internet wouldn’t be the same without it.

Check out the making of video here!

Simplistic, fast-paced and addictive gameplay is what makes Speed Limit so intriguing to me. You will die, a lot. Not as often as Dark Souls or Cuphead but Speed Limit is very much trial and error experience. You’ll become a professional in the first few sections of a level, charging through train carriages, shooting bad guys and dodging bullets like you’re in the matrix, then suddenly faceplanting off the roof and being crushed the wheels of the train. You know, just normal things.

Speed Limit isn’t about learning a mechanic and just charging through every level as quickly as possible. It’s about adapting to what is front of you. As soon as you get used to one level style, it’ll throw you into another – forcing you to start that learning curve all over again. It takes everything that was brilliant about arcade games and adds that modern zeal to it.

James Bond eat your heart out.

Every frame is hand-drawn by the phenomenally talented artists at Gamechuck, with such detail that it boggles the mind. The one thing that it doesn’t take from the arcade era, is the tendency to steal all your money. If you die, you start the level over from the last checkpoint. You don’t have to put in additional coins or run to find more tokens before the timer ticks down and you lose all your progress.

I’m not going to reveal too much about the game itself as I believe that it is well-worth playing yourself, even if just for the banging soundtrack. It’s a hard balance to nail – creating a soundtrack that doesn’t frustrate you after listening to it on loop for ten minutes. They’re talented folks, what can I say.

Subtle agent reading newspaper is subtle.

If you’re curious about how Speed Limit was created, the Gamechuck crew are releasing a three-part documentary series talking about the whole process, so it’s worth looking at! Especially if you’re interested in game design.

Anyways, apologies for the shorter piece this week – partly not wanting to spoil the demo experience for anyone and partly because I’m running a production this week, so I’m sat writing this whilst waiting for some set pieces to dry!

Till next time,

CaitlinRC

Afterparty – They Always Said You’d Drink Yourself To Death:

Posted on by in Gaming

Hell has always been an odd topic for video game designers. 99% of the time, the underworld tends to be represented by demonic monstrosities, human suffering and a lot of torture. Doom tends to be most gamer’s first thought, then maybe the strange musical number from Saints Row. I can genuinely think of one game that gives the Devil’s domain more depth than just a place for human’s to be punished for their sins. That game is a not so well-known indie game called Afterparty. It’s coming to Switch soon and is on Xbox Game Pass if you’d like to give it a go! It’s a short game so I can wait whilst you go enjoy the experience 😉

Made by the same folks behind the brilliantly spooky Oxenfree, (which I’ll write about some today if you’re interested!), Afterparty places you in the shoes of Milo and Lola, two best friends who find themselves in the afterlife a lot sooner than they expected. Unable to remember how they died or what they did to end up in hell, they set out to find some answers and maybe a way back to the mortal realm. As it turns out, there is a way home. All you must do is outdrink Satan in a series of drinking games, like beer pong. It’s not like he’s the Lord of Hell and has been drinking since before any of the molecules in your body even existed.

My friends and I at every big event – constantly losing track of one another.

Throughout the game, you will control Lola and Milo, in order to solve problems, have … interesting conversations with demons and to down cocktails to gain powers (like courage, flirtation or complete arrogance). You know, normal drunk student behaviour. I’m surprised there isn’t an option to steal a traffic cone as kleptomania seems to be a big thing for student’s on nights out. That and having serious conversations with statues, to the point of expecting them to reply. Drunk people are weird, what can I say. Since I don’t drink much, I can’t relate that much to the drunken escapades of Lola and Milo, but my housemates can.

As much as the best friends are the stars of the show, the supporting cast of demons, fellow dammed souls and monarchs of hell are what really bring the story to life. Sam and Sister Mary Wormhorn steal the show. They are a testament that even in hell itself, well written NPC’s can raise the story to a level of quality that game mechanics alone could not achieve.

True friendship is sitting on a bench in hell, like nothing at all is wrong.

Sam, voiced by the wonderful Ashly Burch, is a taxi driver that offers to give Lola and Milo a lift to the different islands that form hells inner circles, cause you know, swimming through the river Styx doesn’t tend to end well for anyone. There’s a lot more to Sam than meets the eye, as her relationship with Satan himself is a bit more… complicated than you’d think for a demonic Uber driver. From providing exposition about the monarchs, to encouraging the friends to not give up, Sam is a character that is worth listening to, especially if you’re as invested in the fates of Milo and Lola as I was.

As you play through the game, you discover that Sam is one of the original monarchs of hell. Cast out of heaven with her siblings by God, she decided to build a small church so that souls who still wished to commune with God, could do so, whether he would listen or not. Satan didn’t take it well and conscripted Sam to her taxi driver position, endlessly driving back and forth, never settling in one place. Bit of a dick move if you ask me but then again, he is Satan. Now, as the player, it’s up to you whether you choose to befriend Sam but if you don’t be kind to Sam, I’ll hunt you down and send you to hell myself.

Tag yourself, I’m Lola.

Sister Mary Wormhorn is an entirely unique character, even in hell. She is what is known as a “Personal Demon” – assigned to ensure that Milo and Lola are continuously tormented throughout their time in hell. She is a manifestation of their inner torments, thoughts and negative experiences, able to create unique scenarios and dredge up horrific memories that the duo would much rather forget. In general, Wormhorn acts as a “summary” to each act of Afterparty’s story. She judges you for your choices, your conversations and the consequences that you will face later.

However, she also gives you more detail on the friendship between Lola and Milo as she puts it to the test. Her goal is to split the two of them up, to break their spirits and generally just torment them. Every tiny disagreement between the friends is noted by her and used later to widen the gap between them. If you side with Lola early on, Wormhorn will remember. At one point she even tries to get it on with Milo’s conscience (yes, his conscience gets ejected from his body by a cocktail) just to piss off our dynamic duo.

Some of my housemates probably could outdrink the devil. Just saying.

Ironically, Wormhorn is the closest this game comes to a moral compass. Although Lola and Milo aren’t bad people, they’re still in hell. Some of the choices you can make are morally grey and that’s the point that Afterparty tries to get across a lot. There is no “correct” choice. No matter what you do, someone will get hurt or miss out. Wormhorn doesn’t let you forget that.

Human emotions are complicated. Our choices are never cut and dry. Afterparty really dives into this, with your decisions and conversations never having a perfect solution. When it comes to the afterlife, none of us are sure what lies in store for us, nor whether our decisions on earth will save us from that eternal hellfire. Though if hell is in any way like Afterparty’s interpretation, maybe I’ll be ok. At least until my own personal demon clocks in to work and goes to town on my …less than perfect mental state.

When in doubt, arm wrestle a demon.

Give Afterparty a chance. After all, wouldn’t you want the devil to take pity on you?

Until next week,

CaitlinRC.