Stevo's Bargain Bin

Well here we are at the end of February. I've been a Nintendo Switch owner for about a month and I have played some really nice games. I thought what I'd do going forward (as much to help me keep track of what I've played as anything 😃) is to have a brief look back at the games I experience each month and choose which was my favorite. There's no set criteria really, other than the amount of enjoyment the game gave me - which could be for a number of different factors. Who knows, maybe I'll round up the best of each month in December and pick my game of the year! But enough prattle! What have I played this month? I started February pretty much exclusively playing Super Mario Odyssey (top left in the pic above, of course.) Then I moved on to the indie Metroidvania Dandara (top middle), then the point and click adventure Earthworms (bottom left), tough precision platformer The End Is Nigh (top right) and finally puzzle platformer Membrane (...

Membrane is an odd little platform puzzle game on the Nintendo Switch by Perfect Hat developers  Seth S. Scott and Jessica Kostelnick . I picked it up in a sale for the bargain price of about 90p and was immediately intrigued by the trailer. The premise of the game is that your character has the ability to fire blocks which stick together and form structures that you can use to walk on or influence your surroundings. For example - need to get over a gap? No problem, let's build a bridge. Need to move that ball over there? Let's make a ramp and roll it where we need it to go - you get the idea. What's nice about these structures is that they aren't exactly rigid and fixed - they bend and if strained too much they can even break, so some challenges need a bit of careful planning if you don't want your constructions to fall to pieces. You can demolish what you build and reclaim your blocks, as your character does have a finite amount of them to play wi...

Picking this game up, I was happy with the fact that I might never fully complete it or that it might take me a very long time - because I knew what I was letting myself in for. The End Is Nigh comes to us from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel and is available on a range of platforms, mine being the Nintendo Switch. I have enjoyed a number of Edmund McMillen's other projects - Super Meat Boy, the Binding Of Isaac and several of his other titles in The Basement Collection for instance. This game bears his trademark feel and look, which I love. The End Is Nigh is a tough platform game featuring Ash, a blob living in a desolate and dangerous land following some kind of apocalyptic event. At the very start his game console breaks and he decides to go off in search of a friend. To do that, he has to make his way across some very perilous landscapes indeed. I really enjoyed the range of environments and the use of colors in the game. Some were really eye popping while ...

Having grown up playing point and click games like Monkey Island and Broken Sword - and many others since - I think it's fair to say I'm no stranger to the genre. It was with some joy that I spotted and downloaded Earthworms from the Nintendo eShop - it seemed a steal at about 90p. I'm always pleased to find new point and click games, I don't think the genre gets enough love these days. The word which stood out for me with this one was... odd. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Let me explain. In Earthworms - which was made by indie studio All Those Moments - you step into the shoes of Daniel, a man tasked with finding a missing girl. His investigations begin in a strange little town but take him to all kinds of increasingly bizarre and creepy locations. Without wanting to give away too much, there's a lot more happening in this town and its surroundings than meets the eye. The game nicely blended elements of mild horror and sci-fi, all the ...

I knew from the moment I saw the trailer that I'd like Dandara - not just because I love Metroidvania games, but because it looked fundamentally different to anything I'd played before. I mean, how often do you come across titles in this genre where your only traversal option is leaping from floor to wall to ceiling and back? That's right. Dandara - created by two-man Brazilian studio Long Hat House and published by Raw Fury - doesn't allow you to walk around like your typical Metroidvania, but we'll come back to that. A brief into sequence sets the scene, in which our hero Dandara awakens to a world facing oppression. She must fight against that oppression "one leap at a time" as the trailer explains, which is all the motivation I needed to get out there and fill in every blank I could find on the map. I understand the inspirations for some of the characters in Dandara are rooted in history including the protagonist herself, whose real-life na...

Being a pretty thrifty guy, I thought I was going to hold off playing Super Mario Odyssey until it (and the Nintendo Switch) came down dramatically in price. As it happened, my wife and I made the excellent decision to take the plunge and get a Switch a few weeks ago for about £300. She got herself Pokemon Let's Go Eevee as part of the deal and by some unbelievable stroke of good fortune, I had a kind friend who had no further desire to play Odyssey. He generously gifted it to me and after popping the tiny cartridge into our freshly charged Switch, I was away on another adventure with the iconic plumbing hero. So is it a good game? Was it worth all of the hype? In a word - Yes. It certainly was to me, at least. It delivers the dependable platforming fun the core series has always been known for while packing in all kinds of new attractions. A variety of costumes are on offer First of all the kingdoms you'll be visiting are, for the most part, quite ...

Hello! Stevo here. Welcome to the blog. This is a space I have created to (mostly) rant and rave about games - the plan being to rant about the bad bits, rave about the good bits and chew over anything which falls in the middle. I also like discussing broader subjects such as general game design and soundtracks, news and nostalgia. On top of that I like movies, anime, cooking, bargain hunting and other bits and bobs so there will likely be some of things sprinkled in too. If any of the above things interest you, welcome aboard - and please feel free to comment and share your thoughts. It's a lot of fun to enthuse about great games and films, but it's even more so to have a good conversation about them. Just to briefly add that there's no set timetable for this blog. I'll be updating as I play different games and see different things. To stay updated, feel free to follow me on Twitter. Cheers! Stevo 😄