Showing posts with label puzzle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puzzle. Show all posts

Friday, 19 August 2022

Mega Motion (Amiga)

Developer:Extend|Release Date:1994|Systems:Amiga, DOS

This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing... uh... I think it says Mega Motion?

Mega Motion is a budget-priced puzzle game that was originally released on the Amiga in 1994, late in the machine's run, and then two years later on PC, right at end of MS-DOS's run. It was developed by Extend, and it's apparently the only game they ever made.

I have played this one before, but it was years ago when I was a tiny baby and I haven't kept hold of many memories of it. I do still have a vague recollection of what you're supposed to do in the game, but what I mostly remember is that I was eating a pack of strawberry laces at the time. In fact it feels weird to play it without them.

Okay, my first observation is that they've used an extremely 80s snare drum sample in the theme music. The gated reverb is strong with this one. 

Friday, 15 April 2022

Superliminal (PC)

Developer:Pillow Castle|Release Date:2019|Systems:Win, MacOS, PS4, XBOne, Switch

This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing SUPERLIVINAL.

I played a demo of this ages ago and made a mental note back then that I should write about the full game sometime, because it's interesting and worthy of attention. Well, that's what I thought at the time anyway, maybe I'll hate it now. Maybe the demo was the only good bit and it's all downhill afterwards. It happens sometimes!

A few years before that demo there was a tech demo, and that had the name Museum of Simulation Technology, but I think the title they went with in the end suits it better. Plus it's got the word 'super' in there, and that's always a plus in my book.

Anyway, I have a vague memory of how the game starts, but I'm sure I'm eventually going to reach some gameplay weirdness I don't expect. I mean I hope so, as it'll be a shame if it just repeats the puzzles in the demo over and over. Oh, I should probably warn you that I'll be giving a few of the puzzle solutions away. Only a few though, I won't be going through the whole game.

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Donut County (PC)

Developer:Ben Esposito|Release Date:2018|Systems:Win, MacOS, iOS, PS4, XBOne, Switch, Android

This week on Super Adventures, I'm writing about indie puzzle game Donut County, from 2018. Because who doesn't love doughnuts? Donuts. Whatever.

The game was inspired by a tweet from Peter Molydeux (the twitter parody, not the notorious Bullfrog/Lionhead/22cans game designer and NFT fan), who suggested the idea "You play the role of a hole, you must move around an environment making certain elements fall into correct targets at the right time." He didn't mention anything about raccoons or doughnuts though, so that's all from the mind of creator Ben Esposito.

Oh no, I've looked at the title screen a little too long and now I need to go get a cup of tea and something to dunk in it. Then I'm going to play the first few levels and see what kind of game it is.

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Space Station Silicon Valley (N64)

Space Station Silicon Valley title screen n64
Developer:DMA Design|Release Date:1998|Systems:Nintendo 64, PlayStation

This week on Super Adventures I'm playing Spacestation Silicon Valley! Or Space Station: Silicon Valley, as it's written in the manual. The PlayStation version claims that it's called Evo's Space Adventures but I think it's lying.

The first thing I've noticed about the game is that there's an inflatable spaceship on the title screen, not a space station, and I don't appreciate this blatant attempt to mislead me. Plus it keeps orbiting the letters and I couldn't decide on the best time to take the screenshot. I tried to catch it in good place but I'm not sure I managed it.

I feel like I should pad this intro out with some interesting trivia taken straight from Wikipedia, so here's a couple of Space Station Silicon Valley facts for you:

First, the game's by Scottish developers DMA Design (now called Rockstar North), who are famous for the Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto series. In fact a lot of the people who worked on the game went on to create Grand Theft Auto III and kick off the 3D sandbox mayhem genre, so I guess it was a good thing this didn't sell enough to get a sequel. We could've ended up in the bad even worse timeline where we didn't get Sleeping Dogs, The Saboteur or Saints Row.

Second, it's no surprise it didn't sell well considering it came out in 1998: The Year of Good Games. Sure the N64 didn't get ports of Resident Evil 2, Unreal, Half-Life, Thief, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Pokémon Red/Blue, Starcraft, Grim Fandango, Sonic Adventure, Metal Gear Solid etc. that year, but Nintendo fans did have Banjo-Kazooie, Body Harvest, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Turok 2 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time competing for their pennies (and Nintendo's marketing budget).

Thursday, 12 October 2017

Bill's Tomato Game (Amiga)

BIll's Tomato Game title screenBIll's Tomato Game title screen
Developer:Bill|Release Date:1992|Systems:Amiga, Atari ST

It's the 30th anniversary of the Commodore Amiga 500 home computer! I mean not today specifically, it seems like it hit the Netherlands in April 1987 and the rest of Europe shortly after. But it was released in the US at some point during October, and that's all the excuse I need to make this month on Super Adventures all about AMIGA GAMES!

For the next few weeks it's all Amiga titles, nothing else. Wall to wall Amiga. Though don't worry if you're not keen on that idea; at the rate I've been writing about games lately you're likely to only see two at best.

I started by checking top 100 lists to put together a set of classic titles that really define what the system is, the most Amigary of Amiga games... but then I realised that they'd have me playing things like Sensible Soccer. So I scrapped that plan and decided to play a few of the games that have stuck in my head for whatever reason. Like Bill's Tomato Game for instance! It's a game about tomatoes made by a guy called Bill Pullan. Though it definitely isn't named after him, at least according to the manual, which I definitely didn't check just now out of curiosity.

Thursday, 25 December 2014

Xmas Lemmings (Demo) (Amiga)

Xmas Lemmings 91 title screen amigaXmas Lemmings 91 title screen amiga
Aww, they even dressed up the 'TM' with a bit of holly.

Welcome to a special Christmas edition of Super Adventures, where I'm playing a special Christmas edition of a game you've probably heard of. I figured that I should put the effort in to find something interesting to look at this year, something with a bit of festive charm to it... but mobygames and a team of experts couldn't come up with anything suitable that begins with the letter 'X', so you're getting this instead.


There's actually a few Xmas Lemmings and Christmas Lemmings games around, with the first two being 4 level demos made to promote Oh No! More Lemmings, and the last two being proper retail releases with 16 levels each. But I'm only playing the earliest of them, which I found on an Amiga Format coverdisk (Issue 30, on sale Christmas 1991 if you're curious).

Oh, plus I should mention that I have played Lemmings plenty of times before and I'm very familiar with it. I'm crap at it mind you, but I know what the buttons do.

Saturday, 17 May 2014

Gumboy: Crazy Adventures (PC)

Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a quick look at Gumboy: Crazy Adventures, developed by Cinemax in 2006 (probably not the Cinemax you're thinking of).

Is this even going to be worth looking at? What even is it? I dunno, that's why I'm playing it. I get the feeling from what I'm seeing here that it's going to be a little outside my typical area of interest, but it was a gift from a friend so I'll endeavour to give a shit regardless. Plus variety is good.

(Clicking the images will present you with the original sized screenshots... mangled by jpeg compression, hah!)

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Fez (PC)

Fez pc game title screenFez pc game title screen
Hi, you've found yourself on Super Adventures, where I play games for an hour or two to figure out what they are and show off some screenshots. I'm bored of 'E' games now, they've gotten old, so I'm moving up to exploit the untapped potential of the letter 'F', starting with puzzle-platformer Fez.

I realise that everyone else on Earth already knows everything about the game already, but it's all completely new to me so I'm playing it anyway. The game debuted on the Xbox 360 in 2012 and for a while seemed happy enough to just stay there and shun the outside world, though it did eventually make its way over to PCs and PlayStations over the next couple of years. I'll be playing it on Windows as that's the version I've got, but I don't expect there'll be any noticeable differences between the systems.

(Click the screenshots if you feel expanding them to their orginal res, though you won't be missing out on any details by leaving them small.)

Saturday, 8 February 2014

Antichamber (PC)

Alright, now that Replay Week is finally out of the way I can at last reveal my true master-plan for Super Adventures: Year Four. This year the site has a dumb gimmick you see: I'm going to play games in roughly alphabetical order; 3-4 of them per letter, one letter every fortnight, and this is going to carry on for the next 51 weeks (or until I get bored of the idea).

This tiny change should help me clear out my current backlog as there'll be an average of 96% less games around to distract me, while also giving readers a clue of what to expect for once. If you're hoping I'll play a game starting with K, they'll be showing up in July. If you're dying to see me play, I dunno... Zeno Clash, then that could happen next January!

I realise that chronological order would make more sense for so many reasons, as it'd put the games in context and let me examine how they've evolved over time. But knowing me I'd likely still be talking about the Master System and the NES five months in and this site ain't Chrontendo so I'd doubt I'd get away with it. Maybe next year though!



I'm starting this off with another game from my long list of requests: first person indie puzzle game Antichamber.

I've heard that this is a game about discovering the rules and gameplay for yourself, so that even showing you how it plays would be a spoiler. But I'm going to go and do it anyway, so if you have an interest in playing through the game yourself and and you haven't already, you might not want to read any of this. Not that I'm likely to be able to get very far into it.

I'm not going to show you the title screen though, because the game doesn't have one.

(Clicking these screenshots will unfold them to their original size.)

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Light Crusader (Genesis/Mega Drive) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay 2014 - Game 6

Light Crusader title screenLight Crusader title screen
And the final game I'm replaying this year is... action RPG-type thing Light Crusader. That logo's looking so Roger Dean that I wouldn't have been shocked if I'd seen 'Psygnosis' written down there instead of 'Treasure'.

In fact this is a pretty atypical art style for Treasure, who at this point were famous for flashy cartoon action games like Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes and, uh, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (hey, it's actually a pretty decent game). Like all Treasure games up to this point it was Sega exclusive, the final game they released on the Mega Drive/Genesis before switching over to the Saturn for 1996's Guardian Heroes. They continued supporting Sega right through to the end of the Dreamcast but they weren't particularly exclusive to anything at all by '97, and gamers everywhere soon received the benefit of their videogame design genius. Well except for PC gamers, but I hear that they'll be fixing that this year.

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Lufia / Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES)

Lufia II Europe title screenLufia II Europe title screen
Ignore what the title screen says; today's game is actually Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals for the Super Nintendo. They dropped the number for the European version as the first game wasn't released over here and they didn't want consumers to have the unnecessary distraction. To be fair, the game's a prequel so it probably stands on its own just fine.

People have been asking me to take a look at this one forever; so of course I ignored them all and played the original Lufia instead. But today I'm finally playing the one that everyone's been recommending to me. This is the good Lufia (apparently).

Saturday, 13 July 2013

McPixel (PC)

McPixel title screenMcPixel title screen
It's Steam Summer Sale time (2013) so I figured I'd play something vaguely Steam related today, and what better choice than the very first game to make it through Steam Greenlight onto the storefront: McPixel!

Actually now that I think about it Half-Life 2 would've probably been the smarter choice, but screw it I've already loaded this up now. It's too late, I'm on the title screen.

Despite the title this isn't actually another McDonalds tie-in game. Instead it's apparently inspired by legendary 80s TV series MacGyver, that everyone on Earth seems to have seen but me. Unfortunately all I know about the series is that the lead actor went on to play that bloke on Stargate originally portrayed by Snake Plissken, so any direct references will be completely lost on me. But I'm totally expecting to be combining things with things to do other things.

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Little Inferno (PC)

Little Inferno title screen
Today I'm planning to find out exactly what this Little Inferno thing I've heard so much about is. All I know is that it was developed in part by 50% of the team that gave humanity World of Goo (artist/composer/designer etc. Kyle Gabler), and that it's meant to be a satire about dumb time-wasting unrewarding videogames. But I'm hardly the kind of person who constantly throws their time away on tedious pointless games, so it's possible that the entire message may go drifting past my head when it emerges.

(Click the pics to see them in relatively huge 1280x960-o-vision).

Sunday, 2 June 2013

Gunpoint (Demo) (PC)

Gunpoint is described as being a stealth puzzle game, which is a combination that personally makes me want to run screaming, but I'm also curious about it. It's been promised to have an innovative rewiring mechanic letting you make progress by tricking enemies, and hey I like innovative things! So I'll give it a chance to prove its greatness.

Anyway you should be aware that I only have the demo version of the game here, on account of it not being released until tomorrow, so if it ends up being reworked into a gritty first person shooter or something by the time you get your hands on the final product then I apologise for my misleading screenshots.

Saturday, 25 May 2013

Bubba 'n' Stix (Amiga)

Today, because YOU demanded it, I'm taking a look at mid 90s puzzle platformer Bubba 'n' Stix by British developer Core Design. This was released on the Amiga, Genesis/Mega Drive and CD32, but I'll be mostly playing the Amiga version because I'm guessing it came first. I'll let you know if the Sega version's any different.

Monday, 6 May 2013

Angry Birds Space (PC)

Angry Birds Space Loading screen
Well, looks like today I'm playing Angry Birds Space then. Not to be confused with Angry Birds Star Wars which is presumably also set in space, but with more lightsabers or wookies or whatever. This is actually the fourth game in the unfathomably successful Angry Birds franchise and the first I'm going to sit down to play for more than 20 seconds. With any luck.

Honestly, I'm as surprised as anyone that I'm playing this, but someone thought it'd be hilarious to gift me a copy and ask me to write it up for the site. Not that I'm ungrateful, much the opposite, it's just... well, it's Angry Birds. How am I supposed to get an entire post out of this?

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Manic Miner (ZX Spectrum)

Manic Miner ZX Spectrum loading screenManic Miner ZX Spectrum loading screen
Today I'm taking a brief look at classic platform game Manic Miner, prequel to the slightly more infamous Jet Set Willy, and still fairly notorious in its own right. It'll be 30 years old this year and has been ported across to a dozen systems so far, from the C64 and BBC Micro to the Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360, though I'll be playing the original ZX Spectrum release because it's the most genuine article.

Most of the time I'm playing these games blind, but I have to admit that I know a bit about this one already. Manic Miner and I go way back. Though I never did get past the level with those damn toilet monsters, so If I can just manage that then perhaps I'll feel like I've actually achieved something.

WARNING: The game over screen flashes like crazy. Do not stare directly at my inevitable game over screen gif. In fact, it's a ZX Spectrum game so it's probably best to not look at any of the screenshots at all.

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Cannon Fodder 2 (Amiga)

Cannon Fodder 2 hand grenade title screen AmigaCannon Fodder 2 hand grenade title screen Amiga
The first Cannon Fodder game caused a little bit of controversy due to its use of a poppy for its logo. The Royal British Legion apparently thought the game was offensive to millions and didn't much appreciate their symbol being associated with it.

So for the sequel, Sensible Software went with a nice safe inoffensive image of a hand grenade for their logo. Fortunately for them Something Awful hadn't been created yet, so they got away with it this time. And everyone was happy.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Bad Rats: The Rats' Revenge (PC)

The first game I'm checking out in 2013 is physics puzzler Bat Rats! I'm bringing in the new year in style. I don't know much about this, except that it's got a bit of a reputation for being slightly sub-par and that it ended up in my Steam library over Christmas thanks to a generous friend.

Thank you generous friend! (You bastard.)

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Necromantics (MS-DOS)

Necromantics dos title screenNecromantics dos title screen
I think it's supposed to be Necromantics, not Necromantics. No vampire love story in this one.

I'm certain I played this game years ago, but I only have the vaguest memory of it. Something about an invisible wizard with white gloves. I couldn't even remember the name, I just saw the box sitting in a shop the other day and thought 'YES, THAT IS THE MISSING PIECE OF MY PAST!'. So I'm eager to find out what it actually is.

Semi-Random Game Box

Dragon Ninja (ZX Spectrum)
Nerves of Steel (MS-DOS) - Guest Post
Alien vs. Predator (SNES)