Games of March 2020

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

I had never written a review for Ghost Trick in the "old index" because I hadn't come to terms with it yet (don't ask) and wanted to replay it so I could finally see how replaying it works. Besides, it's a neat game with a decent soundtrack.

As the game is fairly old by this point, let me just play it straight with you right now by showing you a picture that is one of the story's big twists.

First, it's pretty slow-paced, some of the puzzles work only after specific scenes and movements by the right actors, and timing. They try to drop subtle hints that Sissel is a cat but these are often inconsistent. He doesn't know what "science" is (but human Lynne, as a ghost, can't either)...but he understands the concept of inertia (when Lynne first encounters the "murder machine").

Another "clue" of his true nature is stating in the same chapter that he likes small, cramped places (like Lynne) despite the fact that he (thinks) he is a tall guy with a haircut like Mac Tonight, yet he seems to like dogs, feeling sorry for Missle when he is killed a hitman.

I might add more if I feel like it.

Super Meat Boy (PC)

I pulled out Super Meat Boy recently for the first time since I stopped playing it largely in 2017 due to the levels being too hard, basically speed and precision as you jump through increasingly hard levels with spikes and whirling blades. You get treated to a scene at the end showing all your attempts as they rush out, but it became an issue of diminishing returns as I got to the last world, which only has 5 levels (not 15 levels of which you need to complete 10), but they all were "perfect precision jumping or start the level over". It's fast-paced but does not allow for alternate strategies. In Hotline Miami if you botched a mission and were sniped by the guy over at the window or attacked by a roaming dog, you could do something different, like duck into a side-room, pick off the mobsters, and clean up when the whole gang runs to the scene of the crime...but here it's all timing, and I think I officially gave up sometime early last year when I spent like 20 minutes on a single level.