0ABC Challenge : It’s easy as 1 2 3 !

Definitively one of the best games I played this month [march]!

It's a retro, slow-paced plateformer with a big die & retry component. You'll have to master the two jumps (one low, one high) to get through precise platforming stages, and you'll die a lot while trying to understand what path the game wants you to follow.

It almost feel like a puzzle-platformer game sometimes. You should know that there is a huge peak of difficulty in the fourth world but even there 1001 Spikes is never unfair and you can only blame yourself for the traps you don't manage to avoid. I know there's a lot of those retro-styled games nowadays but f you like platformers you should really look into 1001 Spikes, it a great and truly rewarding game !

A few years before I played Aragami, I had a lot of fun playing the first three Metal Gear Solid ; partly because I loved the cheesy, over the top storyline, partly because the gameplay just felt perfect. Since then, I did not play any other stealth game and I had some issues taking my first steps in Aragami...

Obviously, because the game is set in a fantasized feudal Japan, there's no radar here, which was really helpful when playing any of the MGS games... And the camera sometimes makes it hard to have a proper look around to see what could spot you. It got me a bit frustrated at first but then I got used to it (and of course, it helps that the game, even in "normal" difficulty mode, is quite easy) and I must say that I quite enjoyed playing Aragami!

It's true that the storyline lacks subtlety and is not really fascinating but the cell-shaded world is really good looking and it's quite fun to play a ninja, teleporting from shadow to shadow and taking down dumb and short-sighted guards. You unlock a few useful and fun abilities as you go and feel more and more confident as you get to the end of the game. Even though I can't say I didn't fall head over heels in love with the game, it's been a nice playthrough.

It took an ABC Challenge to force me into finishing Braid at last and it was great ! It's been lurking in my backlog for so many years, patiently waiting for me to finally dive into it... I don't know why I let it wait for so long as I never heard anything but praise about this game.

Maybe it's because of the art... I always thought it was beautifull but unsettling at the same time... I did launch Braid a few times over the years but never went past a few of the first minutes of the game. I'm glad I persevered this time because it is definitively a great game!

All the puzzles are really good, all the mechanics diverse and I'v rarely saw them elsewhere (if ever), even so many years after the release of the game. One thing though : I wish it would have take me a couple more hours to finish it!

Yes, the atmosphere of the game is kind of weird but Braid deserves that you give it a chance to catch you. If you're like me and still couldn't find the motivation to play it for real until today, don't wait anymore : it's a great game and every puzzle-game enthusiast should have played it!

"On our first attempt, I knew we would have to make with some discomfort, yes, but I didn't not picture all the troubles we would experienced ! My mater and I, we overcome thirst and hunger, we survived an encounter with a very special sea monster and unexpectedly had to assume the charges of a midwife in the middle of a perilous landing operation ; but in spite of all our small victories, we ended up short on our bet as it took us 83 days to complete a round trip around the world that Mr Fogg stated he could beat under 80 days..."

"But despair did not fall on us and we eventually made it ! On our second attempt at this trip around the world, we reached London again after only 70 days of travel !"

Borrowing a lot from Jules Verne (obviously), this mostly narrative is a mouthful of historical, literary and other cultural hints and it's a real pleasure to search for those and spot something you weren't expecting (James Cameron's Titanic, maybe ?) ! It helps create a vivid universe and fills your trip with great memories !

The game is fairly easy and I don't think that it involves any random event that might have help you to keep playing the game again and again but is it really an issue ? I don't think so because after you manage to beat the game for the first time you can still try to get better and beat your score, but what seems even more appealing to me : you'll want to take your time and go visit as many places as you can on the map and experience every little reference that you can find !

Maybe not right after beating the game once, but I'm pretty sure that 80 days is a game that you can play on the long run, every time you got a few minutes and want to get a bit of the treats that the dev' have made for you.

A really good experience for me, I'll definitively play it again sometime !

Dominique Pamplemousse is a really short Point & Click, quite easy and straightforward which stands out as it is a Musical (every dialogue is sang) and because of it's clay animation graphics. Those two facts were enough to make me want to look at it

Unfortunately, despite a story that is totally fine, you'll quickly start to feel annoyed by the songs, far too repetitive (there's only one - short - theme for each character) and not really inspired (try to sing about your life to your friends, it will probably seem a lot like the songs in Dominique Pamplemousse...)

As for the graphics, I'd say that it's a nice touch even though nothing really amazed me.

In the end, even though the game is really cheap, I would not advise you to buy it. It's really not convincing. On the other hand, if it was already waiting in your backlog, give it a try, it's really short and the unusual twists of the game might be enough to convince you...

Elliot Quest looks a lot like Zelda 2 (side scrolling 2D action plate-former in the dungeons, looking for new abilities that serves as keys to open new paths into the world) and even though it's not really a bad game, one can't help but think that it really should have been a lot more polished: the difficulty isn't really well balanced (most of the Bosses are fairly easy to beat but some lesser enemies are extremely though to beat or avoid...), the objectives could be far more explicit, the UI more user-friendly (mapping the triggers to switch between our inventory objects for example) and it would not have hurt to work a bit more on the graphics because the sprites seem to "flat"...

To be clear: I kept going from enjoying the game to being frustrated by what I think are silly mistakes of game-design that could have been easily corrected...