Child Of Light/Stick It To The Man
Discussion
Two quick recommendations for Arcade/Indie games you can get now, both worth a look in between sessions on Destiny and waiting for Forza Horizon 2!
The first game I downloaded this week is 'Stick It To The Man'. Obviously taking spiritual inspiration from Double Fine's past hits and with the look of a 90's Nickelodeon cartoon, this one is IIRC £6.49 and is essentially a 2D point and click adventure, think back to the Discworld games, Cosmic Spacehead and that sort of thing.
The game follows Ray, a hapless hardhat tester who, through no fault of his own, acquires the power to read the thoughts of others, and to create material items from their thoughts. These, along with other items acquired around the levels, are used to solve puzzles and progress to the end zones. The gameplay is light and easy, and is really a vehicle for the fantastic art and brilliant writing. There is a fantastic cast of characters involving a story where Ray is pursued by mysterious forces intent on using his mindreading power for their own means. The ten chapters last around 5-6 hours, and the writing stays taut and funny throughout. The humour is great too, going from some surprisingly dark and morbid stuff to slapstick, and then some rather intelligent gags. A favourite moment of mine is meeting the Pipe Robot, a robot whose sole purposes is to stand around with a collection of pipes on it's head. Or TV Bot ("I AM TV BOT'S INNER SECRETS. I LIKE TV"). The dark art style gives it a Rugrats meets Noire feel, and the jazzy soundtrack is very catchy.
It's hard to write about why this game is so charming and memorable, suffice to say that I'll never forget it. One of the best Arcade games I've played.
.jpg)
The second game I've been getting on with is Child Of Light. This is a slightly more serious title, and has won loads of awards and furthered the 'games as art' debate. It's also a nice break from the usual videogaming tone of "in the dark future there is only war". It's £11.99 on the Live store and worth every penny. Whilst being nearly twice the price of the previous game, the reviews I've read on this suggest that it's around 12 hours long, so that works out about a pound an hour for a very memorable gaming experience.
It's basically a 2D RPG, and much like Stick It To The Man, it uses the 2D medium to provide incredible graphics and an art style that looks hand drawn. Where Stick It To The Man looks like an old Nickelodeon cartoon, Child Of Light is like watching a moving watercolour. It's billed as fairytale RPG, in which you play a young girl called Aurora who awakes one night, apparently dreaming, in a land called Lemuria. Lemuria is shrouded in darkness after the sun, moon and stars went missing. Whilst the story may sound like a 'arrive in a foreign land and save the day' trope, it's presented in such a fashion that it is engaging and you care about the result as a consequence.
It helps that the landscape itself is so charming. Fish fly through the skies, pillars of water fall from the clouds onto distant castles and stream down the sides, and Aurora runs, jumps and then flies over dark woods and through ruined temples. As I say, it is a classic turn based RPG and uses a clever action bar to illustrate the turn system. By understanding how you can influence the turn speed of each character on the battlefield, you can turn battles to your favour and destroy a selection of intricately designed enemies. It's a smart system, once you get used to it. The forces of light also play a part in the game, and you're accompanied by a floating being that can use light to influence puzzles in the environment and stun and slow your enemies in combat.
As I say, I'm not that far into it at the moment, but it looks and sounds so beautiful. It plays very well too. Well worth looking at!
The first game I downloaded this week is 'Stick It To The Man'. Obviously taking spiritual inspiration from Double Fine's past hits and with the look of a 90's Nickelodeon cartoon, this one is IIRC £6.49 and is essentially a 2D point and click adventure, think back to the Discworld games, Cosmic Spacehead and that sort of thing.
The game follows Ray, a hapless hardhat tester who, through no fault of his own, acquires the power to read the thoughts of others, and to create material items from their thoughts. These, along with other items acquired around the levels, are used to solve puzzles and progress to the end zones. The gameplay is light and easy, and is really a vehicle for the fantastic art and brilliant writing. There is a fantastic cast of characters involving a story where Ray is pursued by mysterious forces intent on using his mindreading power for their own means. The ten chapters last around 5-6 hours, and the writing stays taut and funny throughout. The humour is great too, going from some surprisingly dark and morbid stuff to slapstick, and then some rather intelligent gags. A favourite moment of mine is meeting the Pipe Robot, a robot whose sole purposes is to stand around with a collection of pipes on it's head. Or TV Bot ("I AM TV BOT'S INNER SECRETS. I LIKE TV"). The dark art style gives it a Rugrats meets Noire feel, and the jazzy soundtrack is very catchy.
It's hard to write about why this game is so charming and memorable, suffice to say that I'll never forget it. One of the best Arcade games I've played.
The second game I've been getting on with is Child Of Light. This is a slightly more serious title, and has won loads of awards and furthered the 'games as art' debate. It's also a nice break from the usual videogaming tone of "in the dark future there is only war". It's £11.99 on the Live store and worth every penny. Whilst being nearly twice the price of the previous game, the reviews I've read on this suggest that it's around 12 hours long, so that works out about a pound an hour for a very memorable gaming experience.
It's basically a 2D RPG, and much like Stick It To The Man, it uses the 2D medium to provide incredible graphics and an art style that looks hand drawn. Where Stick It To The Man looks like an old Nickelodeon cartoon, Child Of Light is like watching a moving watercolour. It's billed as fairytale RPG, in which you play a young girl called Aurora who awakes one night, apparently dreaming, in a land called Lemuria. Lemuria is shrouded in darkness after the sun, moon and stars went missing. Whilst the story may sound like a 'arrive in a foreign land and save the day' trope, it's presented in such a fashion that it is engaging and you care about the result as a consequence.
It helps that the landscape itself is so charming. Fish fly through the skies, pillars of water fall from the clouds onto distant castles and stream down the sides, and Aurora runs, jumps and then flies over dark woods and through ruined temples. As I say, it is a classic turn based RPG and uses a clever action bar to illustrate the turn system. By understanding how you can influence the turn speed of each character on the battlefield, you can turn battles to your favour and destroy a selection of intricately designed enemies. It's a smart system, once you get used to it. The forces of light also play a part in the game, and you're accompanied by a floating being that can use light to influence puzzles in the environment and stun and slow your enemies in combat.
As I say, I'm not that far into it at the moment, but it looks and sounds so beautiful. It plays very well too. Well worth looking at!
Gassing Station | Video Games | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff