After a Mid-year review in June, the What We’ve Been Playing column has returned!
While it may seem that Pokemon GO is what was on everyone’s minds for the month of July (because it was) doesn’t necessarily mean that our backlogs of titles have gone away! Click on through to see what retro, shooter and Action RPG games we’ve played in July.
Ryan Gibbs has been playing “Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen”
GameBoy Advance
The success of Pokemon Go has sparked an interest to replay the old Pokemon games I grew up on. While Red and Blue are super nostalgic, there’s quite a few issues with them that make the games a little less fun in hindsight and those problems would ultimately be fixed in later generations.
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That’s why whenever I get the itch to play the first generation Pokemon games, I usually choose the Game Boy Advance remakes FireRed and LeafGreen. These games add all of the fixes and additions to play that were introduced in subsequent games – holding items, abilities, lack of weird glitch stuff, etc. – while still providing the same story and game experience.
I’ve sunk quite a bit of time into the games this past month and it’s really wonderful that they’ve held up so well. The games were already the best part of the Pokemon franchise and they remain exceptional, fun and challenging RPGs.
My only real complaint right now is that the game exclusive Pokemon are different from the originals, and two of my favorites – Slowpoke and Psyduck – are exclusive to one game or the other.
Game Boy Advance games are fairly cheap to collect, and you’re likely to find either FireRed or LeafGreen for a fair price at any good used game store. If you do, they’re work picking up.
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Donald Strohman has been playing “Life is Strange”
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PS4, Ps3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Mac
Maxine Caulfield is your average photography student until one day she discovers she has the ability to rewind time. When she’s hit with a premonition that predicts her town’s destruction at the hands of a massive storm, it is up to her and the player to try and save it. With the butterfly effect front and center in this title, the players must make the best decisions possible if they wish to get the best of endings.
I absolutely love games that put the heft of the narrative entirely in the player’s hands. Games like Heavy Rain and Until Dawn kept you on edge from beginning to end, thanks to the choices you made having some kind of effect on the narrative’s direction. Life Is Strange is another great example of the butterfly effect game done right. Despite some tonal inconsistencies and a some bad lip syncing here and there, the story and characters are what make this title worth checking out!
Grant Johnson has been playing “Overwatch”
PS4, Xbox One, PC
I became addicted to Overwatch after my first match. I was kind of surprised because I was hesitant to buy it from the get go. Something about a game that doesn’t have a single player campaign or experience spells trouble to me. But I took the gamble on it and I am infinitely impressed. Each character has their own unique challenge to them in how they play, and while some take a little bit longer to master, I was happy to discover that the basic learning curve is easy to grasp. Having the game for a few weeks now I have identified some characters as clear favorites, but with each new day I play I’m finding myself experimenting with characters that I initially did not take to. This game has quickly taken control of my household. When either myself or one of my roommates picks up the controller to play, the other two are right on the couch watching and waiting to give suggestions and compare tactics. My only real complaint is the lack of local split screen, especially considering that Activision is able to invest and include in their Call of Duty titles. Really though, that is a small complaint for a game that is artistically bright, mechanically deep, and endlessly playable.
Evan Griffin has been playing “Super Paper Mario”
Wii
So, it’s pretty obvious that everyone enjoys a good Mario game, but I also find it quite funny when people complain that they only ever see the same old thing when a new Mario game releases. The Paper Mario series, made initially on the Nintendo 64 to re-brand the RPG style for the franchise started by Square Enix on the SNES. The third in the franchise was Super Paper Mario, which combined Action-RPG elements and Zelda style environmental puzzles with the traditional Mario run-and-jump gameplay. This is mainly centered around Paper Mario’s newfound capability to flip into a third dimension, giving the previously flat world a Z axis to additional puzzles and secrets. The gameplay offers variety not just through this dimension flip, but also different party members with the likes of Peach and Bowser, each with their own unique abilities, (a-la Super Mario Bros. 2) plus Mario’s guiding pixel pals that he uncovers throughout the game, giving different combat abilities to the heroes throughout.
I’m also beginning to realize that I glossed over the fact that Bowser is both playable in this game and aligned with Mario in it. This is also one of the few Mario games out there that presents itself with a really well put together storyline, namely in that a new threat in an inter-dimensional space named Count Bleck, and his team of equally strangely named accomplices, decide to take over the Mushroom Kingdom in some grandiose doomsday scheme. The best of the story through this game however, is the personalities of every character, both major and very very minor, as their identities shine through with body language and a simple scrolling text box. It’s also heart wrenching to see Luigi be hypnotized and turned into the dastardly “Mr. L” against his own brother. Poor Luigi can never catch a break.
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