Itchmas in July #3 (July 2024)

I just caught up with the final two games I wanted to play this Itchmas.

Red Snow was fine. Decent concept and presentation but I wasn't very enticed into getting a better score after the first run. I am down to check out the full Steam version once that's done.

Mobius was heckin' awesome. Loved that. Really nice outside-the-box platforming that teases the brain a little. Nice visual presentation too and fun music during that last boss fight.
Probably my second favorite pick in this Itchmas after Mr. Platformer.

Also just noticed that Mobius is made by the same person as MapFriend which we had during another Itchmas, and No Players Online which was nominated by someone for this Itchmas. (Although I can't find the post for that anymore. 🤔) And if I had realized that the nominated version of No Players Online is actually a new, explanded version and not the original game that I played already years ago, I would have actually voted for it. lol

- Matt

Now that I've also completed the ones I'm going to complete - it was a bit of a middling itchmas in July for me - but as always, am happy to have checked out the games I did, even if most of them didn't land for me.

I think my favourites were Folder Dungeon and Day of the Hamster... the latter because it was a great homage to those LucasArts point and click adventures, and the former simply because it was a fun take on a saturated genre.

I didn't mind that all the games i tried weren't all that fleshed out - as that's kind of the point of the exercise, and most are just proofs of concept so I had a fun time seeing what people came up with either way.

Unsurprisingly, the ones I really didn't like were the platformers - Mobius sounded good, but I couldn't retire it fast enough when I started - not my taste at all - didn't even try Mr Platformer, because I feel like I know how that would have turned out.

The most disappointing for me was probably Pretty Coo' because I felt like it promised a lot more than it delivered and I really disliked the shit controls and kind of soft-locked myself because I didn't realise you were actually meant to keep the pigeons around and they all flew away...

Red Snow was a nice concept as well, but just too slim in its execution - would like to see this taken further into some kind of snowboarding/combat hybrid... but this concept was very limited.

Overally though, I still had fun checking out these random games and I'll be looking forward to the next one - even if this was perhaps the weakest showing yet IMO.

So just played Pretty Coo' and wasn't very enthused by the game. It did a poor job explaining what you needed to do and I spent ages just trying to figure out how to get the pigeons to follow me. After that I just spent it waiting while the pigeons destroyed the barriers. It was basically a game of waiting. Maybe it'll been better with more fine tuning but ultimately I just found it boring

Tried Yurivania 1: Uhaul of the Night but was unable to beat it as there was a bug in the cave where the items wouldn't work so had to give up there. Tbh I wasn't really enjoying the game. Nothing really piqued my interest and it was to me just a fetch quest. It didn't help that the controls felt floaty and had times where I feel off the platform cause my character slipped which just added to frustation. Also maybe it's just my controller but the A and B buttons reversed so A was B and B was A so not sure about the configuration on the controller

So finished Day of the Hamster and gotta say that was a well made tribute to old style point n clicks. It had it moments of confusment for me but for the most part the hint system helped. A found the Hamster Maze actually rather enjoyable. I did have issues with turning but the input setup worked for me and I enjoyed fixing the path to get to the end. For me it was the metal detector which caused issues as I found it rather picky in where to stand to pick up an item I need

I just wrapped up 7 of the 9 games, and overall had a pretty good time with this event. I skipped Yurivania: Uhaul of the Night mainly since I didn't like the controls and the fetch quest nature of the game. I also skipped playing The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight, as it's a visual novel, which isn't a genre I particularly like. This is probably how I would rank the games I played from best to worst.

1. Red Snow
Red Snow was pretty basic overall, but really fun for it's concept. I liked the absurd gameplay and the general humor that this game had. The gameplay was pretty fun, albeit a bit basic. Super fun concept that I would love to see expanded with it's full release

2. Mobius
Mobius was a pretty fun platformer with it's mobius loop gimmick. It definitely had some annoyances with the camera and jumping physics, but overall this one was pretty fun. Definitely worth checking out.

3. Folder Dungeon
Folder Dungeon is a little roguelike, which though was pretty simple and easy to beat, was still a lot of fun. I really liked the whole folder gimmick and the approach to navigation with the whole heat mechanic. I definitely am quite interested in seeing how the full release ends up being as there is some good potential here.

4. Day of the Hampster
Day of the Hampster is a pretty solid point-and-click game. I like how it emulates older point-and-click games, such as ones from LucasArts and others such as King's Quest. The puzzles were mostly fun, if not a bit obtuse at times to figure out. That said, I hated the Hampster maze puzzle, and I think it is a bit too annoying for an already short game. Definitely well worth checking out if you enjoy this genre.

5. Mr. Platformer
Mr. Platformer was a pretty fun Rougelike platformer. The platforming felt really good, and I like the approach it attempts to take with the order of levels and how you go through them being somewhat randomized. That said, this one was pretty basic otherwise and not nearly as interesting as the others I played above it.

6. Oceanworks
Oceanworks was a pretty fun ocean survival game with a heavy inspiration with stuff like Subnautica. I overall had fun with the gameplay, and this game's general length is perfect for what it wanted to do. That said I had some issues with the game, such as with it's underwhelming endings, and the exploration elements overall lacking. The worst issue I had was with crashes, as I had this game crash on me 3 times, which resulted in me having to restart this game 4 times before I could finish it. For a game created in a 72 hour gamejam, its pretty solid, but besides that is a bit disappointing.

7. Pretty Coo’
Pretty Coo' was really disappointing overall, as this one had a ton of potential to be amazing, but just kind of flounders it's potential with incredibly janky and confusing gameplay. I really liked the whole pikmin concept it wanted to do with the pigeons, but this game ends up doing it very poorly thanks to the pigeons having really awful overall AI, and most of your mechanics to either call the pigeons or send them off to do something being borderline unresponsive. Ontop of this, the overall objective to traverse the level was pretty boring, and made worse by this game extending it's playtime out quite a bit by just making you wait for sometimes minutes on end for pigeons to finish up an objective. I liked this game's artstyle, but besides that I didn't find this game enjoyable in the slightest.

Okay just played The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight and maybe i'm not in the right mindset or just not into Visual Novel but I was rather bored of TMLBT. The visuals were great and the geuss the writing was there? But nothing interested me at all about it. There was interaction and the story didn't at all pull me in. In the end I was just going through the motions for that one. It reminded me of Lookouts from last year but I'm going to be a lenient on it this time. If the story didn't pull me in then I not gonna score high

So just played Red Snow thats was a pretty decent proof of concept. It needs a bit further flesgin out as it quickly got reptitive but the concept I though was good. A snowboarding game where you have to kill your way down the mountain. I feel that a time limit on the game would of worked wonders as you just repeat until death. I also at times had performance issues but nothing too serious. Fun concept and nice and short

So final game done Mobius. Unique idea which I don't think works for a platformer. A mobius strip which can be twisted expanded or shrunk. Using this for a puzzle would be quite cool I feel but as a platformer it just overcomplicated things especially working with the camera to find where you character is. It is not helped with a slow delay and floater controls. I'll get the reviews up at some point and ranked but that itchmas done for me

Okay my ranking but first the only retired game of the month:

Yurivania 1: Uhaul of the Night - Got stuck in the cave at the bottom as the items refused to work within the cave

8th - Pretty coo'
Completion July 14, 2024
Main+Extras 29m 12s
Notes 17 pigeons
Review
An undercooked take on pikmin. The game does a poor job explaining itself and does explain well how to get pigeons to help. Once you do get help though it takes ages for the pigeons to finish a taks and you ultimately have nothing to do. It ends up a long game of waiting.
3/10

7th - The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight
Completion July 18, 2024
Main+Extras 1h 18m 28s
Review
A standard visual novel which did not pique my interest. There was no interaction in the game and was a straight line throughout. It had good graphics but I was uninterested in the story completely
5/10

6th - Mobius
Completion July 22, 2024
Main+Extras 55m 8s
Notes Not all coins
Review
An interesting concept that doesn’t work for the style of game chosen. The mobius style could work for a puzzler especially with the ability to shrink and expand the mobius to create different routes but as a platformer it ultimately just becomes a fight with the camera. This is not helped with the floaty controllers and delayed responses when running.
5/10

5th - Red Snow
Completion July 20, 2024
Main Story 9m 57s
Notes Wave 6: About 500,000 points
Review
A fun concept that needs more fleshing out. It repeated itself a bit too much but the concept would work quite well with more levels and perhaps a time constraint added onto it
6/10

4th - Oceanwork
Completion July 11, 2024
Main+Extras 29m 37s
Notes 1 of 2 endings
Review
A rather decent mining game made quickly as a ludum game. Fun but rather shallow overall
7/10

3rd - Folder Dungeon
Completion July 01, 2024
Main+Extras 28m 32s
Notes 3 playthroughs
Review
A short but fun little rogue like. It doesn’t do anything special with the format and there's a limit on interaction but it is well designed and is a fun and easy play.
7/10

2nd - Mr. Platformer
Completion July 13, 2024
Main+Extras 1h 10m 38s
Notes All levels, High Score: 1380
Review
A great tribute to atari platform games with 40 levels. Some duds but a lot very well made and a great and fun game
8/10

1st - Day of the Hamster
Completion July 17, 2024
Main+Extras 1h 1m 15s
Review
A loving tribute to old stylee point n clicks. It still has the moon logic of the old games but offers a hint system. Some nice and interesting little puzzles are included and it’s a bit picky in where you stand for the metal detector but overall a rather fun little game.
8/10

Overall a decent itchmas. No big stand outs or low downs. I think the only consistent thought really is that most people didn't enjoy Pretty coo' which I agree but it's not the worst itchmas game. Nothing there was a huge standout to me but very few bad games this time