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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
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2323 registered gamers and 3358 games. 7895 GameLogs with 13390 journal entries. 5126 games are currently being played.
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Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES) by AlecChristensen |
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most recent entry: Thursday 24 January, 2008
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GAMEPLAY
My second bout with this game I decided to start with the boss I left for myself earlier. This turned out to be one of the most original bosses I have seen, at least from Donkey Kong. I had to battle a flaming lava bone sword by first running away from it jumping from hook to hook over a pool of lava, then throwing a cannonball at it. Winning this fight took me to the third world, which succeeded in actually thoroughly creeping me out. This Ship was sunken in a woodsy bog, and patrolled by strange creatures. I came across double-sworded kremling babies, purple porcupines, many disgusting insects and pole climbing lizards. The music kinda made me feel like I was in a voodoo swamp in Louisiana.
The boss was probably the scariest part of the whole place. He was just a super buff hulk crocodile on steroids with a giant spike club bigger than Diddy and Dixie combined. The only way to hurt him was by flinging barrels full of TNT at his back as he jumped around from the trees. It was a pretty fair match but I managed to best him anyway.
The fourth world is probably the weirdest part of this game. I think they were trying to freak out clown phobics, because that whole place was creepy carnival themed. The levels were some of the most fun, however. There are several roller coasters where you ride around on a skull and race crocodiles, which remind me a lot of the old mine cart rides from the prequel. Then there is this crazy bramble level where you shoot yourself around in barrels over razor sharp thorned vines. Possibly the weirdest and scariest is the giant beehive you must navigate, where you jump around, get stuck on honey, and avoid giant spiked bees that can only be killed via rhino or barrel.
DESIGN
From an impartial initial inspection, this game is a 1 hit KO platform jumper game. Every time one of your monkey charaters is touched by an enemy, in yelps and takes off down the path. You must rescue your friend before your second monkey is killed, or you lose the level and a life which is marked by the sound of a popping balloon. As like every other platform game you must collect 100 somethings to get a new life, golden bananas in this case, and strewn throughout the levels are other goodies such as big golden coins and the occasional life balloon.
Even though the game seems incredibly cliche for today’s game world, there is no doubt that this game is definitely among the best of its class. Every level feels fresh and new as they vary the themes with the level type, colors, and backrounds. A level can have many platforms, be mostly ropes, be mostly barrels, or can be mostly on the ground; it can be in a cave, in a galleon, on a rollercoaster, or in a bees nest. But the favorite for this game is the pirate ship, fighting crocodile pirates. All of these factors make the gme incredibly versatile.
This game has it all, and seems to oddly mirror the complications that arise from the simplicity at the root of our own lives. I am a primate , whose only objectives are to stay with his girfriend and find his friend, and in so doing recollect his food supply, the Banana Hoarde. They must rise to meet every wacky or creepy obstacle that stands in their way, trampling over and eliminating any enemies with whom they cross paths.
I keep thinking that this game is based on the plastic toy “Monkeys in a Barrel.” These two monkeys can carry or throw each other to whatever destination they need to go, and a constant theme in every level is barrels. You bust your fallen friend out of a barrel, you save your level progress with a barrel, there are barrel enemys, rolling projectile barrels, barrel explosives, and of course you fly around in and are fired by barrels.
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