WaveLand

Randomed a more obscure one from my list this time. WaveLand isn't particularly popular, nor do I believe it to be particularly good.

WaveLand is an action platformer, with movement mechanics built around some dashing mechanic from a specific fighter game I've never played. The game is split into short levels, each pitting you against a time limit and scoring you based on your completion speed. Essentially, it's a game for speedrunning. The pixel art style it has evoked some feeling of nostalgia in me, but was otherwise unmentionable.

First of all, I'm no fan of speedrunning, so I guess I'm not really the target audience, and the game's not very enjoyable for me. Secondly, I've also not played that other game whose players the developer apparently tailored the movement to. If you fit into both of those categories, then maybe it's worth trying this game. Otherwise, not so much.

Even accounting for the fact that neither the goal nor gameplay is aimed at me, this game feels like it's lacking substance. The levels feel empty, plain. The story is something obscure, and more of a thing in the background, so it's hard to care about that either. All that's left is traversing these levels and chasing numbers, which, even if it wasn't about speed, and if the movement was more generally appealing, doesn't seem to be enough for a good game.

So I wouldn't really recommend WaveLand. Maybe unless you really are the very narrow target audience for this game and are otherwise bored.

29.04.17

You know, despite all the new games I play, there's almost never anything really good. Something actually enjoyable comes along maybe once a month, and a truly great game maybe once or twice a year. I suppose the specific games differ depending on which genre you're after, but there's still a very lengthy period between completing one good game and finding another.

Although with ~100 games that are still sitting in my to-play list, I shouldn't be the one to make these complaints. I'm just getting the feeling like my efforts of looking through all the games myself are kind of going to waste, because if ever another really good game came along I'd know about it anyways.

This was actually just a small rant / prelude to explain that I'm not really satisfied with the games I found after fixing my parser and going through nearly a week's worth of Steam's new releases, but I figured I'd pick something at least. And oddly all my three picks have an aesthetically similar look to them.

WaveLand is like a platformer, but it's made for speedrunning, not puzzles, as they usually are? From my own description, I guess it's kind of like Super Meat Boy, except it looks like the movement feels different? Heck, like I said, I wasn't particularly satisfied with what I found this week.

Flinthook is the most promising of these three. It's a room-based grapplingflint hook rogue-like thing. And from the screenshots, a whole lot is happening at all times. But I won't know how good it is until I try it, so until then.

And then Red Obsidian Remnant, which is also a rogue-like. Except it's Chinese, looks cute, and is a dungeon-crawling RPG. Uh, yeah.