Some morning odds and ends.

Yuck.  I was sick all Monday night and yesterday, so now I'm well and behind on things at work.  Hate, HATE using paid time off for being sick.  Just sucks away future vacation time.  I slept from like 10pm 2 nights ago, until almost 1:30 in the afternoon yesterday, and again crashed by like 10 last night.  So, here I am at work, getting some writing in before I actually start my day (I have a tendency to get to work about 50 minutes early so I can drink my coffee (Coffee With Games would probably approve), check my email and do things like write this post.

Where to start... how about a quick note from NBA Jam: On Fire Edition?

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Gaming Thoughts... A couple of last Mass Effect 3 tidbits

I'm planning to post my Mass Effect 3 full review tomorrow.  It's lengthy, but I hope you enjoy it.

Moving on - I find that the number of EA crossovers over the last few years sort of odd, but generally I have liked them.  Bonuses for playing Dragon Age on Facebook that show up in Dragon Age II?  That works.  The odd Dead Space armor swaps?  Odd, but it generally looks cool.  Tying in Blood Dragon Armor from Dragon Age into Mass Effect?  Sure, why not - that was my primary armor used in ME 3 truth be told.  They're all under the EA wheelhouse though, so I found the Mass Effect 3 armor showing up in Final Fantasy XIII-2 a bit odd.  I don't plan to pick it up, but maybe others will?  It seems like Square Enix has Final Fantasy XIII characters crossing over quite a bit more as they explore the DLC world.  I saw a rather odd article on IGN yesterday about them modeling Prada clothing too. 

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Fallout Free on Good Old Games for the next 48ish hours

I really enjoy Good Old Games, as they bring a lot of older titles to the PC in a way that newer machines can generally run them easily enough.  Well, GoG has a nice freebie for the next couple of days - the original Fallout is free.  You can find it here if you are interested.

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Hoard - PC Game Review

It's fun being the bad guy.  A lot of people who get a chance in games with moral choices go to the dark side in Mass Effect or Fallout.  There are some titles completely designed around this idea such as Dungeons and Overlord, though their degree of success can be debated.  Hoard embraces this role though as you play the part of a dragon who spews fire and collects gold and princesses every chance you get.  I picked this particular title up off of Steam fairly cheaply awhile back and have enjoyed it for the most part.

Graphics - 7:

This is not a pretty game.  The top-down graphics do a good job of showing you everything you need to see, but the world itself is fairly dull and lifeless unless there are a lot of moving units active on the map at once.  It looks like some sort of an old board game as you soar around the countryside looking to cause trouble.  That said, at times there can be several things happening at once on the map and I never experienced any glitches or slowdown.

Sound & Music - 5:

Not a real big fan of the music to be honest.  It does not fit the game very well, much like I felt Record of Agarest War's metal music was a bad fit with its medieval fantasy setting, the music in this game seems out of place as well.  The sound effects are simple, but effective.  To be honest though, this is a game you can just as easily play with the music turned down and something else playing on your computer in the background.

Gameplay - 8:

Your dragon handles pretty well once you get the hang of things.  Blazing knights and thieves, burning down towns and terrorizing princesses is a lot of fun and the controls work well.  Getting around the game's menus is easy enough as well.

Intangibles - 8:

The multiplayer is a lot of fun, and there are enough varied objectives to give you something to do as you move from map to map.  If you are a fan of achievements, there are a ton of them if you are playing this game through steam.  Adding to it is a leaderboard that I will never be at the top of, but for fans of the game it gives them some definite goals to try and attain.

Overall - 7:

This game is a lot of fun in quick, short bursts.  It would be perfect on a handheld.  The graphics, sound and music do disappoint, but they don't actually take anything away from the gameplay itself.  That said, once you play it for awhile, there might not be a lot left to do outside of the multiplayer.  I played this game very heavily at first, but scarcely since.  The same can be said of my son, who seemed to enjoy the premise for awhile, but after about a week hasn't touched it.

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Magic Orbz - PlayStation Network Review

I have always liked a good brick busting game.  I remember Arkanoid quite fondly from when I was a kid and even as recently have been playing Shatter on my PC.  One title I had never really planned to pick up was Magic Orbz on the PlayStation Network, but last year when Sony offered it cheap with their Welcome Back program, I picked it up.  There was also some free addon content you could snag for free with your month of free PlayStation Plus trial.  This was not a long game by any means, but I did enjoy it for the most part and it caught my wife's eye as well with its cute visuals.  Here's a bit more of a breakdown on the specifics.

Graphics - 7:

This is a bright and colorful game that masks the 'brick' layout with actual buildings and hedges and other objects that fall apart when struck.  These visuals caught my wife's eye and she actually took over the controller and played for about an hour that night, and for about half an hour the next.  Keep in mind she spends probably less than 15-30 minutes a month playing video games, so this was quite unusual.  In some ways, the graphics are both this game's greatest strength and weakness, because the visual style is very inviting but it can get cluttered at times and make it hard to see what it going on.  I am okay with losing a ball because my reflexes were not up to snuff, but there are times when there is just so much going on at once on the screen that you cannot even see the ball until its too late.

 

Sound & Music - 6:

The music is pretty bland, to be perfectly honest.  That is not to say it was bad music, it was not - it just was not particularly interesting either.  The sound effects help as there is a fair amount of variation in them, and they seldom got repetitive.  Similar to the music, the sound effects really did not impress in the end, but they served a purpose pretty well.

Gameplay - 7:

The gameplay is pretty solid, though I found the directional pad more useful than the analog stick for accurately controlling my paddle.  There is a decent selection of power-ups (and power-downs) to be had which keeps things interesting.  Some of the later levels were a bit challenging (some would even argue cheap) by how close to your paddle the blocks were placed.

 

Intangibles - 7:

There are quite a few levels, and the free expansions helped extend the fun.  Still, I think you can blow through the main set in under five hours, and the side ones seemed to go even more quickly.  There are trophies to collect for people who like those, and for the most part they are pretty easy to collect just by playing.

 

Overall - 6.75:

I would have a hard time suggesting this title at full price, but I believe I got it and the expansions for about $3 in total, and I felt pretty good about that.  The steep spike in challenge around midway through the levels turned my wife off to it, and my kids though.  That's worth noting because the visuals appealed to both groups of people, but they grew tired of the (you could argue 'cheap') difficulty spike quickly and have never played it again.  I gave it a longer run, but even if you stick with it like I did, you can get through the majority of the content pretty quickly and after doing so there is not much reason to go back to it, though there is multiplayer as an option - but one that just never appealed to me.

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Gaming Thoughts 1/31/12 - PlayStation Plus for Feb

I just saw this rundown of the PlayStation plus deals for February.  I cannot say I am regretting my decision to re-up for a year.  My backlog is eying me angrily as I post this...

IGN posted these as the freebies for the month:

PS3 Full Games:
Far Cry 2 – 2/14 (V-Day Special One Week Offer)

PSN Games:
The Simpsons Arcade Game – 2/7
Sega Genesis Bundle – 2/21
Altered Beast – 2/21
Comix Zone – 2/21
Golden Axe – 2/21
Sonic 1 – 2/21
Sonic 2 – 2/21
Streets of Rage 2 – 2/21
Battle Fantasia – 2/14
Fatal Inertia – 2/14
Hamsterball – 2/14
Inferno Pool – 2/7
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom – 2/14
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars – 2/14

minis:
Hungry Giraffe – 2/7
Gold Medalist – 2/7

PS one Classics:
Final Fantasy V – 2/7

Full Game Trials:
Grand Theft Auto IV – 2/14
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – 2/21
Tom Clancy'S H.A.W.X 2 -2/21
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 -2/28

Early Access Demo:
The House Of The Dead III Exclusive Playstation Plus Demo – 2/7

Media:
Qore Episode 44 – February – 2/7

Avatars and Themes:
The House of the Dead 3 Dynamic Theme
Start The Party 2 Dynamic Theme – 2/21
The House Of The Dead III – Agent G Avatar
The House Of The Dead III – Lisa Avatar
The House Of The Dead III – Z1 Avatar

And some discounts too:


PSN Games
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition (Bundle) – 2/14 (PS+ Price: $23.99)
The House of the Dead III – 30% off Crazy Taxi & SEGA Rally Arcade – Drive Me Crazy Bundle – 20% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $9.59)
Sonic Rivals 1 – 25% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $5.99)
Sonic Rivals 2 – 25% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $5.99)
Sar – Search and Rescue Mini – 20% off – 2/21 (PS+ Price $TBD)
Hamilton's Great Adventure – 50% off Sale Price – 2/21 (PS+ Price $2.50)

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Gaming Thoughts... 8/3/11 - Humble Bundle #3

I missed out on the first couple of Humble Bundle deals when they came out. My computer was somewhat... lacking prior to Christmas (thanks hon!). That said, I've been gobbling up games at a somewhat stupid pace since then on discount, and one of the better deals out there is the occasional Humble Bundle - you can find it here:

http://www.humblebundle.com/

It's pretty hard to have anything bad to say about this. Indy game developers roll out a package of titles where you pay what you want to get the games included. Seriously, I have a friend who paid $1 last time. Sometimes, I'm embarrassed to be in public with him :P

It's for a good cause as a good chunk of the proceeds goes to charity - but even then you can decide how much you want to go to whom, whether it's a charity or the developers themselves. The deal was already pretty good, but it got made better today. The original package included:

Crayon Physics Deluxe
Cogs (which I reviewed previously here.)
VVVVVV
Hammerflight
And Yet It Moves
Steel Storm

On top of that, if you pay more than the current average people are shelling out (that would be $5.10 as of this writing) you are eligible to get the previously offered Humble Bundle #2 as well. That list of games includes:

Braid
Cortex Command
Machinarium
Osmos
Revenge of the Titans

In case that wasn't enough incentive, they're also tossing in a free key to play Minecraft until August 14th. My son was in on the earlier betas and loves this game, so he was pretty excited about this one.

The games found in the two Humble Bundles are also DRM-free, and they can be tied to a Steam account for those who like having their games centrally located, so I'll no doubt be playing them on Steam while my kids play them on their internet-less computer.

Obviously some people will already have some of these games (I had Cogs through Steam and Braid on my 360) - so that may affect how good the value is for you personally, but I'm very excited to get a hold of these games at this price, and am excited to see the Humble Bundles still coming out. Have you downloaded and made use of this or any of the prior Humble Bundles? If so, what did you think? The only other one I had purchased was the Frozenbyte one and have only logged extensive time with Trine, which I have been thoroughly enjoying.

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Potato Sack #7

One of the game that I got as part of my Potato Sack acquisition from Stem was Defense Grid: Awakening. I've got this for my 360 as well, having acquired it last summer when it was on sale for like 200 points. It's an awesome game, but obviously was not one of my biggest factors in acquiring the Potato Sack. I have been meaning to give it a good review for some time, so we'll just count this as a PC and 360 Arcade review since the game is pretty much the same on both platforms.

Defense Grid is a tower defense game - which basically means you have swarms of invaders (aliens in this case) who travel various paths to try and reach a goal (in this game, they are trying to go to your core reactor, to steal energy cores for themselves, which then will then try to march off of the map). Your objective is to create defense towers to stop them. You do this by gaining resources - and these increase a couple of ways. First, you are always gaining, though the more cores you currently have protected (you start with 24 and if all of them are stolen, it's game over) and the more resources you have on hand, the faster that value goes up. So for example if you're sitting on 24 cores and 1000 resources, every second that goes by you may gain 3 more resources. If you have 3 cores and 10 resources, you may gain an additional one every 30 seconds or so. It creates an interesting dynamic where you want to sit on resources as long as possible - but not so long that your defenses are under-developed and unable to thwart the invading aliens.

The other way you gain resources is by destroying aliens. They came at you in a variety of shapes, sizes and powers. Weak herds of them may band together, trying to swarm through fifteen at a time in a cluster, making it hard for guns to single them out and pick them off - so perhaps a flame throwing tower works better here. Boss aliens are better armored and so flame throwing is not nearly as effective as a gun tower. There's faster than average aliens, flying aliens, aliens who spawn more aliens, and it's a challenge to set up a proper defense that can best handle all of these things. A missile tower might keep the skies free and clear, but they don't help you at all against ground units.

Aside from a large variety of towers to choose from, you can also spend to upgrade them. This improves their abilities - but usually at considerable resource cost. It's a wonderful balance of strategy and management, all wrapped up in a visually pleasing sci-fi package. The music's nice enough, and there's a narrator with a calm, likable voice as the somewhat thin storyline is advanced by him and new towers and tools are skillfully integrated into your arsenal level by level.

Time flies when you're having fun, and I've always found this game to be personally very fun. I remember playing it the first time and then realizing around 3am that I had been playing for about 5 hours. I had beaten most of the maps in that time, but there's varying degrees of difficulty, leader boards, and the very nature of the game begs for experimentation and replay as you attempt to protect each and every core the next time. The graphics are not exactly powerhouse, but I thought they looked better than most tower defense games, and this one can be had on Steam for $10.

I already had this one so for me personally the value as part of the Potato Sack was slightly negated, but for fans of this genre I would encourage giving the demo a try. For me the title's a 9 out of 10. Quick video below of one of the earlier levels:

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Potato Sack #5

One of the more curious titles in the recent Steam Potato Sack was Super Meat Boy. I'm going to be up-front on this one: I'm not much of one for platformers. Super Mario Bros games hold a special place in my heart, and my kids like them (we have Kirby's Epic Yarn - which I still haven't touched), but generally speaking platforming games do not hold the same place in my heart as sports, strategy, rpg and fighters. When I think of platforming games, I think of interesting visuals, challenging jumps, lots of dying and level memorization. These were staples of the NES era when I'd play games like Life Force, Contra, Rush N Attack, Legendary Wings and so many more. But over the years, I did not play these kinds of titles nearly as much.

Why am I prefacing this? Because on the one hand, I can appreciate a lot of what Super Meat Boy does and does well, but it's not a game I will probably spend a ton of time playing personally. My son loves it. He has no problem with trial and error and tons of deaths. I find it to be a decent 20-30 minute diversion and then I sink my gaming teeth into something a bit... well, I was going to say 'meatier' - realized the unintentional pun within, and hang my head in shame. Moving on...

There's a lot to like here. the presentation is full of retro goodness for people who enjoy this sort of genre. You will die and often, but one thing I did appreciate was that most of the levels were actually quite short. No checkpoints, no running out of lives. Boss battles feel a bit more like a traditional Super Mario level, where as many of the levels in Super Meat Boy are much shorter. In the first world, you will be seeing several levels that are 1 screen in size is all.

The controls are solid. You run, you jump, you cling (and slide down) walls as you angle for your next jump. There's a sense of both horizontal and vertical scale that keeps the levels feeling fresh. Graphics and music and sound all work together to help recreate the retro experience. On their own, these elements are slightly above-average to good, and not great, but together they do a good job of carrying the game's theme and intent across.

There are a lot of intangibles here. Each level has a tougher, more sadistic 'dark world' that amps up the difficulty level and splashes the screen with a cool, new look to levels you've already beaten. There's secrets to find including bandages you can use to unlock new characters who all have their own attributes as well. There are also leaderboards for those who like to compare scores. All of this adds up to a fairly large game with a lot to do.

At $15 on Steam, it's not a bad price. It lacks some of the musical and graphic 'wow' of a Super Mario or Kirby release, but at a fraction of the price, that's to be expected. If you enjoy platforming gameplay and aren't frustrated/turned off by punishing difficulties, then there's a lot of value to be had here and it's probably worth a go. This is a game I've been eying for awhile, and I'm glad I got it as part of this package and not as a standalone personally. I'd probably give the game an 8 - it's not my cup of tea but I can't deny that you get a lot of game here for the price.

Below is a funny video of my gaming session. I have no idea what was going on here. usually the game is fast and buttery smooth playing on my machine. But as I recorded it here, two things began to happen. A) The game slowed down considerably. Not surprising that if my processor's getting taxed that I'd be dropping frames. B) While I was recording, impossible game physics occurred. I was unable to jump at times, I couldn't cling to walls -and as you will see, I started to fall through walls and floors. I have absolutely no idea how this happened, but the video plays out almost more as a blooper reel. A level that's usually a matter of seconds to finish? I couldn't do it. Somehow the game engine was affected by my processor being taxed, and breaking its physics. I've love to know what is happening here behind the scenes to cause that, but I thought it made for an entertaining video at least. :)

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Potato Sack #4

Indie games are generally ones done without a large budget. One of the best ways to get around the need for voice acting, powerful graphics engines and more is to develop a puzzle game. Set up a system of rules and then apply them creatively to a span of levels. Several of the games in the Potato Sack package by Steam recently would fall into that particular category, and among them was Cogs by Lazy Eight Studios.

The premise is both interesting and simple - slide around wooden panels (much like those plastic frame-enclosed sliding square games from when I was a kid), but instead of trying to assemble an image, you are connecting parts of a greater whole to make an invention. My wife played something similar on her iPad recently, and her reaction to that game seems similar to my reaction to this one. It's fun to start, and you get a nice sense of accomplishment when your invention is fully assembled and it 'comes to life'. You use gears, pipes and more to line up gas valves, put a clock into motion and play out musical chimes in a specific order.

There is a lot going on at any given time. It's not just enough to figure out how to lay things out, but the need to shuffle the squares means that there's no clear path in place for doing so. It's really very easy earlier on, but the challenges become quite taxing in the later stages and make the game feel like a bit more of a drag. As you complete puzzles, you gain stars. Sort of like Guitar Hero, you unlock later challenges through the accumulation of these stars, so you can theoretically skip some of the puzzles if you are really struggling with them.

Graphics are okay, and the sound effects feel appropriate though the music is pretty underwhelming and there's not a lot of variety to be had either.

With no hint system in place, some of these challenges can get pretty frustrating. Like my wife's iPad game, Cogs was a lot of fun when I started, but the returns diminished for me the further into it I got. At $10, it's not a bad game, but I'd probably give Cogs a 6 or 6.5. It's not bad, but there's better for the price (you could for example, pick up Toki Tori and Rush for that same price).

The other game I want to talk about is called Bit.Trip Beat and it, like cogs, is $10 on Steam normally. I thought the title looked familiar, so I did a quick bit of research and realized I had seen a review for this on the Wii in the past too. I had been playing some of the Steam 'music' games like Audio Surf or 1... 2... 3... and thought I was in for a similar experience with Bit.Trip - but was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case.

The first impression is an interesting one - I had this full screen game of low resolution, blocky but colorful graphics with a paddle on the left side that immediately called out to classics like Pong. The retro graphic style quickly grew on me though, as did the catch electronic beats. The premise is pretty simple - objects fly at you from the right side of the screen, while you move your paddle up and down on the left hand side to keep the flying pixels from falling off of the screen. Succeed in making contact, and it turns out that precise moment matches a beat in the funky music score. It's all very engaging - my oldest daughter's not much of a gamer, but she loved this one.

As you get further along, the challenge can become a bit overkill - truly frustrating. It doesn't help that sometimes there's just so much going on in the game and with the backgrounds, that your flying pixels can be obscured. It feels a bit cheap when you have a huge string of hits going and a block slides past you because you never saw it on screen due to the background comet hiding it.

Let too many blocks on by, and you wind up in a dull, gray, music-less world that gives you a chance to save yourself. These sections are much easier because you don't have the various distractions - but it's just not as much fun either. You find yourself desperately wanting to get back to the music and color that gives Bit.Trip Beat its life. I'd probably go with 7, maybe 7.5 simply because my daughter enjoyed it so much - at $10 it's not a bad value and was a bit of a surprise for me in fact.

Down below is a video of the early Bit.Trip first level and then also me solving out a couple of the earlier puzzles in Cogs.

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Potato Sack #3

The Potato Sack by Steam was an attempt at getting a bunch of Indie games together, and packaging them at a single price. It was a heavily discounted package that helped draw attention to some titles that might not normally have seen much attention. While the first 2 posts I made on this topic revolved heavily around smaller, more obscure titles, there were a few in the Potato Sack package there tried to push a bit further and show that they had more in common with big budget games than most indie efforts. Some worked better than others in this package, and the game I want to take a brief look at today is simply called: The Ball

The first thing you notice is that it touts the use of Unreal engine and that it has a fairly nice-looking if brief opening scene, giving it a story before plunging you into the depths of an archealogical dig on your own. You then happen to come across a strange 'gun' for lack of a better term, though it's really more of a physical hammer (left-click) and a drawing device (right-click). Your primary tool in this game is a very large, ancient ball. You can propel it forward with the left-click and draw it back to you with the right.

What do you use the ball for? Just about everything. It's your tool in combat (run over monkeys, zombies and more with it) and your primary means of solving puzzles. I would say the majority of the game is puzzle solving and exploration. To that end, the game generally works pretty well. The environments look pretty good, the puzzles are generally logical and the ball is integrated into them pretty well. The music is decent as well, but the sound effects annoyed me a fair amount - usually because you have to have the 'draw' part of the gun active so the ball follows you around, and it's a somewhat grating sound after awhile.

Also of concern are the controls. At times they can be really touchy, and while the game does have checkpoints, they are spread apart just far enough that you find yourself retracing your steps. Also, while the ball itself handles okay, there's times when you have to 'hammer' cubes into locations and that just feels clumsy. Also, I got hung up on environments at least 4 or 5 times while I played, and was finally the reason I stopped about halfway through. The game does not seem to be terribly long - looking at the achievements it appears the game is about 4 or 5 chapters and I got through the first couple relatively quickly. But the last time I had gotten hung up, there had not been a save in nearly 25 minutes, and then I tried to jump over something, and got 'stuck' on a wall. The first couple of times it happened it was annoying, by the last time though, it was just killing the game for me because it seemed like each time forced a lot of lost time.

Combat is also kind of awkward. You get the hang of it quickly enough, launching the ball at your targets and then pulling it back to you to run over anyone you might have missed. But, with the controls being so jumpy at times, it is easy to get ganged up on by charging creatures and feel like you never got a chance to defend yourself.

On the one hand, I can appreciate what the developer, Teotl Studios was trying to do here, but the $20 price tag, annoying situations/glitches/controls and what appears to be a somewhat short run time make it hard to recommend this particular title. There is a demo of it on Steam if you think you might be interested, but this is a title that I'm glad was a throw-in and really didn't cost me anything as I would probably only give it a 4.5 to a 5 overall.

I included a brief video below of me solving a couple of puzzles, and you can see the game mechanics in action.

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Potato Sack #2

So I touched on a trio of titles that were interesting, but as full games were a bit lacking in my mind - at least for the price - back with Potato Sack #1 the other day. This time, I'm examining two of the titles created by Two Tribes - Toki Tori and Rush.

Both of these games are essential puzzlers. Toki Tori has minimal story - you're basically gathering up eggs in various levels using a handful of tools available to you. When you start off, it's little more than navigating a basic level. It's all 2-D platforms, ladders and occasionally very simple enemies that wander back and forth repeatedly. You will use freeze rays, a teleporter, lay down bridges and more during your adventure. There are 4 worlds in total, and a dozen maps in each. I blew through the first two worlds in about an hour, but spent much longer on the last couple of worlds as the difficulty spiked a bit. You have to be very creative when you try to navigate the maps, but there is a handy rewind feature that lets you go back to various points in the map in case you made a silly mistake along the way. It's a great mechanic that encourages much-needed experimentation.

The intangibles are somewhat lacking - there's a harder difficulty that can be applied to the maps, essentially doubling them, but when it's done it's done. There's just not much to do after. Graphics are cute - bright and colorful. My youngest termed them 'adorable' when she saw me playing. The sound is okay though the music was actually pretty catchy. From what I've seen, the maps are different on the PC than the Wii version. Overall, I'd give the game a 7 or maybe 7.5. It was fun, and at $5 on steam, not a bad value if you like this kind of game.

The other Two Tribes game in the Potato Sack was Rush. Again, a puzzle game, but without the cute graphics of Toki Tori. You control blocks that roll from start points, and you use certain physics, signs, treadmills and more to redirect them to a finish point on a 3-D map that sort of reminded me of Marble Madness on a much smaller scale. It sounds easy, and some levels are, but others require a lot of thought. There's a nice hint system you can leverage as well should a map be particularly challenging.

Graphics are bright and fun, if very simple. Not much in the way of sounds, but the music is catchy at times. The controls and menus are easy to get around and the learning curve is pretty solid. There's probably around 100 puzzles in total - you can get more if you sign up for the Steam group on Rush. I liked this one just a bit better than Toki Tori - so probably a 7.5 or an 8 overall out of 10. Like Toki Tori, it has a palatable $5 price tag should this sort of game be of interest, and I believe there's a free demo available for download as well. A pleasant surprise that I spent most of my afternoon on (Toki Tori I believe took me about 4 hours to get through the normal difficulty from start to finish).

In the video you can see my struggling with levels the first time I encountered them in both games. Toki Tori in particular was rough - about the first 4/5 of that video was me being stuck, then dead. Then, the light bulb came on and you can see me wrap up in the level in about a half minute.

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