For those of you that saw the last post, I'm doing some games that don't require Steam for the rest of the month. I gave out some clues to the identity of the games, and the first one is here. And it's a meme game, so hope you're all fans of inside jokes and references to bootleg NES games! If you're not, too bad! It's the side-scrolling platformer Grand Dad Reboot, by 'RED-FIRE' on Game Jolt!
"YYYYYYABBA-DABBA-DOO!!!"
'Grand Dad' is the unofficial name of a bootleg character of the character above: a bizarre mix of animated caveman Fred Flintstone and Mario. According to the game's intro (rendered in glorious bootleg Engrish,) he's one of many bootleg creatures looking to take over Earth. They come not from China, not from Russia, not from Vietnam, but from space! However, our caveplumber has rebelled against his own kind and now must fight against them and their copyright-infringing terror in order to save humanity!
Hello, everyone. I was planning on reviewing Cultist Simulator, a card game by Fallen London alumni that caught my attention recently. However, something bigger has caught my attention: Steam/Valve doing something extremely stupid. You've probably heard about how recently Steam has had some trouble with some adult-oriented anime visual novels (shamelessly self-promoting my writing!) as well as a game basically about being a school shooter, a touchy subject in the only country where this is a big problem. Steam's solution? Throw their hands in the air and say "Fine! If you don't like how we curate, we'll just open the floodgates!"
It's actions like this that make me pretend to take a sullen drink from a beer and reminisce about the time a game like Bad Rats was an anomaly among actually decent games. Steam's policy now is anything goes, unless it's illegal (does it consider each country's laws? Would Night in the Woods be illegal in Saudi Arabia for having a gay couple?), "straight up trolling" (whatever that incredibly ambiguous definition means,) and doesn't meet their standards of quality.
Seriously, I had no idea they had standards of quality.
As a kid, I played a good bit of Pokémon, starting off with the third generation. I enjoyed it a good bit, even though I always rolled my eyes a bit at the way they acted like friendship was the most important part of being a trainer. Sure, you love that Shuckle, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a crappy Pokémon that Electivire could kill make faint in seconds. And don't act like you never filled your PC Boxes with Pokémon you collect solely so you can say you "caught 'em all." I wound up being disillusioned and leaving the fandom around Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 when I found that the whole "maybe capturing Pokémon and forcing them to fight is bad" thing was a BS lie by the villains, who could be seen literally kicking a Pokémon like half an hour after their introduction. That's a lack of subtlety worthy of David Cage attempting to talk race politics in a video game! It didn't help that when I considered going back in for Sun and Moon that Nintendo decided to start throwing out DMCAs against good fan games like a creepy guy throwing out candy with razors in it for Halloween (allegedly, because that doesn't happen.) Anyway, what I'm saying is that this is one of those Monster Collection games. It's Thylacine Studios' Siralim 3 (Early Access version 0.1.5!)
I'm not going to make the obvious joke here. I have pride. I also know when a meme should stay dead. It's easy to see when it's the kind of meme that should have never became a meme. Such as messianic gorillas or goofy-looking but racist echidnas. Liberally applied fists don't do much to put them back in the ground, but they do work pretty well against conventional foes, like the ones in the first-person beat-em-up Spartan Fist, by Glass Bottom Games. (Launch Version)
(I don't know why the logo isn't on the title screen, either. It drops you on this menu when you start.)
As you've probably seen, I haven't posted any new reviews for a month. I won't try to make a whole bunch of excuses as to why I was gone. I mentioned in a previous post that I'm doing internship work for MXDWN, but I also took an internship with Geekisphere. These two internships have kept me pretty busy, but now that I've gotten into the swing of doing two internships at once, I'll be posting my next review next Tuesday. See you then.
