Stevo's Bargain Bin

I've been going through some of my old game memorabilia and as is to be expected, I'm all nostalgic. As a result, this is the first in what may be a short series of posts looking at some stuff which has been buried in drawers and boxes for who knows how long. Hopefully, it may stir some pleasant memories for you as it has for me, and if so - please do comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. In this thrilling installment of "sifting through my old tat" I present to you: cheat books and guide books. It struck me in the not too distant past that these must be more or less obsolete for the majority of people now because, lets face it, who would want to thumb through a book looking for answers when you can get them in an instant somewhere like Google or Youtube? There are of course lengthy and glossy official game guides available for many titles, but the little volumes of concentrated wisdom I'm referring to here often cam...

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW  I'd heard a lot of good things about Parasyte and I always like a bit of horror/body horror, so I picked up the manga recently. Illustrated and written by Hitoshi Iwaaki, it tells the tale of Shinichi Izumi, a student whose life is totally changed when he becomes infected by an alien entity. The creature, which takes on the name Migi, makes itself at home in his arm. Soon Shinichi and Migi are thrust into a series of dangerous situations as they learn more about one another and how they can work together to defend themselves from other parasites. If it isn't immediately obvious from the covers of the series' eight volumes, parasites enable infected people to do some quite astonishing things - including weaponizing limbs and body parts, distorting their features, as well as enhancing speed and strength. How exactly this comes into play in the story (particularly in Shinichi's case) is something I won't spoil, because there are som...

While its predecessor may have been divisive, I think it's fair to say Final Fantasy IX was more or less universally loved. I've seen it appear in many "best Final Fantasy games" lists, often at the top - and I couldn't agree more.  This is a beautiful game with a lot to say and I thoroughly enjoyed re-playing through it on the Nintendo Switch recently. Despite its age, I won't delve too deep into plot specifics in case you've not played it (and if you haven't, please do!!) Final Fantasy IX revolves around a mostly likable cast of characters brought together in the typically unplanned RPG way. As the game opens, the theater company Tantalus arrives in the great kingdom of Alexandria, as does somewhat shy black mage Vivi, who hopes to catch their production. Something shady is afoot though, as we discover when Tantalus member and main character Zidane discusses with his comrades plans to kidnap Alexandria's Princess Garnet...

Hey all, it's been some time!  Once again, haven't had the momentum to keep up the blog over the past few months for one reason or another. However I've been playing some good stuff recently - completing some Final Fantasy titles I haven't picked up for a few years, so that's been fun! I've got some fun looking stuff stashed away too, things I've been saving for a rainy day like Octopath Traveler and Breath of Fire III. Also been picking up plenty of bargain Switch titles in the sales to try out. So if I can get myself back into some sort of routine, fingers crossed I should have some more posts coming up soon 😊 Take it easy, Stevo

METROIDVANIA is one of my favorite types of games, and I've played a decent number of them by this point. Not all of them have lived up to the excellence of the two series the genre stemmed from - but many have come close. I'm pleased to say that in my opinion, Axiom Verge absolutely does. The game, by Thomas Happ, had been on my list for a long while before I picked it up in a sale just before Christmas. In the intro, we see a scientist called Trace buried under a mountain of rubble following an explosion in his lab, after which he awakens in a strange alien world with plenty of questions and a voice urging him onward. Starting as an unarmed, confused fish out of water, Trace quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with as he collects all manner of weapons and abilities in his quest for answers. So how does Axiom Verge stack up to the greats? First of all, it feels great. The controls are solid and responsive, plus your many abilities are mapped to the buttons (i...

Before 2016's Inside, an emotional rollercoaster of a puzzle platformer, developer Playdead had already crafted a fantastic and atmospheric side-scrolling adventure named Limbo. I first bought it as part of a three-game pack on the Xbox 360. It came with Trials HD and Splosion Man. While the other two titles were good, Limbo was the real reason I'd bought it and the reason I kept it. I now also own it on PS4 and that was the version I played to refresh my memory. Limbo is instantly recognisable to this day thanks to its somber monochrome art style, which Playdead uses to paint a picture of a bleak and dangerous world. You take control of a small child and within the first 60 seconds or so Limbo makes clear just how fragile this boy is. Pretty much everything is lethal in this world and the boy can take only one hit - often perishing in the most brutal of ways. Like its successor Inside, this game doesn't bury you with plot or reams of background text. You jus...

I've yet to play a bad   Mario game, at least in the main set of platforming titles. In the 3d series things pretty much seem to have become better and better, from the rock-solid foundation on the Nintendo 64 right up to the superb and beautiful Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. Each of those games brought something new. Some new mechanic, some new twist which kept evolving and building on the core experience. However the same can't be said, in my opinion , for the New Super Mario Bros (NSMB) games which began on the Nintendo DS in 2006. Back then, I excitedly picked up my copy of the first installment (bottom left in the pic below - don't ask where the case got to though) and had a great time with it. It boasted gorgeous visuals and a catchy soundtrack, all while maintaining that classic Mario action. The mix of old and new, coupled with the portability of the DS, made it made it one of my favorite platformers of that time. In the years to follo...

We've all wanted to swing at breakneck speeds between giant hot dog sausages and spinning pizza slices at some point in our lives, right? Actually... probably not. But we should - it's damn fun! Verlet Swing was on sale on the Nintendo Switch for just over £3 and one look at the trailer told me all I needed to know before I hit purchase. This first-person swinging experience makes you feel like a superhero inside some kind of bizarre hallucination. The premise is simple; get from the start to the goal. How you do that is largely up to you. It starts off easy, with the first 10 or so levels gradually introducing the mechanics. With the trigger buttons you launch a sort of energy hookshot which instantly tethers you to your target (not all objects can be hooked though). Time it right and gravity will give you a great deal of momentum as you swing,  un-tether and launch yourself madly towards your next target. You can also control your direction with the analogue ...

I'm always on the lookout for Metroidvania style games.  A while back I picked up Xeodrifter (by Renegade Kid) for less than £1 if I recall, and have kept it aside for a rainy day. Such a day came up recently, so how does it compare to the rest of this cracking genre? The game puts you in control of an "interstellar drifter" whose ship is hit by an asteroid, damaging his warp core. He scans four nearby planets and discovers they each have materials which may be used to make repairs. From there you're free to visit any of the four planets you choose and begin your search for the materials. As you begin to fill in each of the planet's maps in that classic Metroidvania way, you'll come across upgrade points to customise your weapon and bosses which bestow all kinds of new abilities. These include, for example, a submarine to explore underwater, a rocket jump to launch yourself skywards and many more. With each ability you earn, new paths become a...

I do like a good slice of grim, dark entertainment now and then. There's something I find really appealing about hauntingly bleak settings and stories for some reason. Imagine my intrigue when such an offer came up in a horror/puzzle platformer of all things, and it was in a recent Nintendo Switch sale too! Tamashii, created by Vikintor , set me back less than £5 if I recall, but I don't think it's too expensive when it's full price either. First things first, the most striking thing about this title is the art style. It's disturbing in a lot of areas to say the least. The game's description states it is "inspired by obscure Japanese games from the 90s and late 80s." I'm not familiar with the particular obscure games it draws inspiration from, but I did feel the influence of HP Lovecraft and HR Giger in some areas. At a glance the story seems simple enough. You play as an "unnamed soul" and you have been summoned by an anci...

My gaming goal for 2019 is to experience more classic games. I grew up with a Megadrive, and I'd say I've experienced a decent number of excellent titles from that era onward. But there are so many others out there that I haven't - particularly from the generations before (and titles from the platforms I didn't have but now have the chance to revisit). With that in mind, I downloaded a triple pack of arcade titles in a PS4 sale before Christmas. It contained Galaga, Pac-Man and Dig Dug. And while they might not reflect the true arcade experience, I've been really enjoying them! Out of the three I've developed a bit of an odd addiction to Galaga, which originally came out in the early 1980s. I'd never played it before, but when opening it up I was immediately familiar with the style of the gameplay. You control a spaceship which can move horizontally at the bottom of the screen and you shoot waves of enemies at the top of the screen. Sound fami...

A few years ago my wife treated me to Final Fantasy XV, giving it to me as an early Christmas present just a few days after it released because she knew I'd been so excited to play it. The case proclaimed it was the ' day one' edition. What did that mean, I wondered? I'd not really come across a ' day one' edition of any games up to that point. I didn't give it much thought and proceeded to sink a good 30 to 40 hours into it, mostly loving it. There were a few sections I didn't enjoy as much. Those who have played it before probably know the parts I mean, and in case you haven't - I won't drop any spoilers. But after finishing it somewhere between the end of December 2016 and early January 2017, I put Final Fantasy XV day one edition back on the shelf and there it has remained ever since. A few months back I read about a number of improvements and additions which had been made to the game since its release. I was aware of course th...

Have you ever been playing a game and even though you might be loving it, you eventually put it down and never return to finish it? I imagine that's a familiar situation for a lot of gamers - I know it's true for me! Here are some of the games I just can't bring myself to finish, but hope to return to one day. Let me know if any of yours crop up here. 1)   Final Fantasy XIII Some of you may not blame me for this one. I know this game divides  people - and let me say from the start, I'm a massive fan of the titles which came before it. I must have made at least four attempts to play through FFXIII (to the dismay of my wife, who lovingly refers to the game as "garbage" ^_^). Every time try, I get a good 20 or so hours in but my enthusiasm fizzles out and I end up letting it go. It feel like a much more linear game than the other Final Fantasy titles, at least for the first part, and has been labelled a "hallway simulator" by some. The...

JOURNEY piqued my interest a long time ago. Yet it somehow took me until this week to actually pick up the game, which was initially released on PS3 in 2012. And boy am I glad I did. As I am sure most would probably agree, it's fantastic. It is the type of adventure which doesn't drop an avalanche of plot on the player, opting instead for a much more minimal approach to storytelling and a really organic method of setting objectives. At the beginning of your 'journey' your character, an unknown figure garbed in a red robe, climbs a sand dune and sees a distant mountain. Its glimmering peak stands out as a clear, definite destination - and with that your quest has begun. What follows is a trek across a series of different and gradually more harsh landscapes. During the course of your adventure, you'll come across a variety of fairly light puzzles. The majority of these can be solved by making use of the seemingly enchanted cloths sc...

Final Fantasy XII seemed a little divisive among my friends when it first came out on the PS2. Personally, I loved it. There was a definite charm to the world and its inhabitants which kept me adventuring onward to find out what stunning and intriguing new place or situation I'd stumble upon next. So how does the remastered/Zodiac Age version hold up today? Following a short tutorial-based prologue, you step into the shoes of Vaan, a young man living in the city of Rabanastre. He seems to make ends meet by doing odd jobs for people, but has dreams of making more of his life. Final Fantasy XII's heroes, from left to right: Balthier, Basch, Penelo, Fran, Ashe and Vaan And wouldn't you know it - before too long he finds himself embroiled in an increasingly high stakes struggle, the repercussions of which reach far further than his home. I won't go into the plot too much, except to say that it sees your party of likable heroes travelling all over the world i...

NOTE: I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO KEEP THE FOLLOWING SPOILER FREE, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET!! ------------------------------------------ I'm sure that by now, many people will have formed an opinion on the latest Star Wars movie. Reviews have popped up all over Youtube and online from the critics - the majority of those I have seen label it as mediocre at best and a messy disappointment otherwise. I went to see The Rise of Skywalker yesterday morning and kept an open mind. While I wasn't in love with the entirety of The Last Jedi which came before it, I largely liked that film and some scenes were simply great. I think I just had the same (but more acute) experience here. I was expecting an epic thrill ride with some twists and turns to round off this latest chapter in the long running tale. The film delivers some of that. Some of the action scenes are captivating and overall everything looks lovely. But for every "wow" moment I had, there was a b...

VVVVVV is a game I return to from time to time, mainly when I'm looking for a break from heavier and longer adventures. Designed by Terry Cavanagh, VVVVVV is a 2D side scrolling platformer which puts you in control of Captain Viridian, whose crew has disappeared from her starship. Her five missing colleagues, all of whom have names beginning with V (hence the title!), are scattered around an open map full of immensely dangerous traps and brain bending challenges. But where this game differs from other platform titles is its central mechanic - Viridian doesn't jump to get around. Instead, hitting the 'jump' button will cause gravity to invert and she'll go soaring off towards the top of the screen or vice versa. This system sounds simple but it really changes the way you approach problems during the course of your adventure. Just when you think you've got the hang of that, VVVVVV will layer on the traps - including spikes, spikes, some enemies whic...

Hello! After a pretty LONG break, I'm back to creating; writing about games I've been playing as before! In terms of articles, I have plenty to write about at the moment. Tomorrow there will be a piece about a platformer I enjoy very much entitled VVVVVV. During the last few weeks I've also been playing/finished a few games including Final Fantasy XII, XV and more - plus there have been some films I may have a few thoughts to share on. So keep an eye out, I'm aiming to settle back into a regular schedule! And as I've missed several months, I've scrapped the game of the month/year list - I'm just going to give it to Hollow Knight because that was bloody brilliant. Speak soon! Stevo 😄

We all have games which talk to us on some kind of emotional level. Celeste definitely is one of mine. The game, developed by Matt Makes Games, is a gorgeous 2D platformer which has a lot more to say than is initially apparent. When we meet our protagonist Madeline, she is just starting her arduous trek up Celeste mountain. Her motivations are not altogether clear to begin with, but as she journeys onward and upward a compelling and heartwarming tale emerges. Without going into detail - because it's best experienced firsthand - Celeste surprised me as its story addressed some important topics such as mental health. It gave Madeline's epic journey up the treacherous mountainside an added level of depth which not many platformers have managed  to pull off - for me at least. As she continues to climb, Madeline meets a likable cast of supporting characters - each of whom bring something to the story. In practice, her efforts to reach the summit translate to some pret...