Recollecting memories of completing games during the earlier months of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
https://afterburn.itch.io/golf-peaks
Relaxing puzzle game where you climb mountains by playing golf. Conquer 100+ handcrafted puzzles using a card-based movement system.
Golf Peaks was included in one of the massive itch.io bundles from the recent years. There are also versions of the game for Windows, macOS, iOS and consoles, however I chose to play the Android version which I installed using Mitch.
Yeah, it's a neat little puzzle game which definitely works on mobile. You use the "move cards" in the right order and choose the right direction to swipe the ball towards the hole in a grid-based layout, navigating slopes, ice, quicksand, conveyor belts, and other wacky minigolf things. Getting balls into a hole is generally fun, and was interesting enough as a puzzle game, until I reached the few final levels where my brain wasn't good enough at heuristics so I just picked combinations one by one. 7/10
https://thatsmytrunks.itch.io/kuso
I'd previously talked about the original LOVE on this log.
LOVE is a series of minimalist, challenging platformers with notably great soundtracks. The entire game is stylized with 3 colors: black for the background, white for the character and obstacles, and an extra color for fun. The first game featured mostly static levels, and you could easily create new levels using an image editor (but only on the Windows version for some reason?). LOVE 2 abandons that feature to allow for the base game to be expanded with *animated obstacles* (ooh).
2-bit color, now with animations!
I certainly enjoyed it more than the predecessor, which I for some reason chose to play on Android (I get carried away with my Mitch app sometimes). This time, I played the Linux version. This allowed me to actually enjoy the platforming more. Setting your own checkpoints at any time is an interesting mechanic, really maximizing the "if you're frustrated, it's your own fault" principle of these challenging platformers.
The game is very short but I've prolonged the experience by choosing Arcade Mode where you have limited lives for the whole playthrough. Reaching every new level was a delight thanks to each one having new (and, notably again, good) music, and reaching the end after 3 or so playthroughs was very satisfying. I rated Kuso a 7/10 when I completed it in late March, though I don't remember what my problems with it were, maybe I was just mad because I sucked (my rankings were D/C/D)
LOVE 2 is a pretty minimalist platformer which has a good Linux port, doesn't use an overkill game engine, and this time doesn't have any Windows-exclusive features. I can recommend this.
Excuse my laziness, for I am once again resorting to copy-pasting ad blurbs:
Blur is the ultimate powered-up racing experience, dropping you into electrified action with a mass of cars targeting the finish line and battling each other as they trade paint in both single player and multiplayer action. Travel the globe from L.A. and San Francisco to Spain, the UK and more to take on the best the streets have to offer. Utilize an arsenal of power-ups like nitro speed boosts, shock attacks, defensive shields, and landmines to beat your rivals across the finish line. You choose how and when to use your arsenal of powerups for ultimate impact in a race where the outcome is never certain.
To be clear, I really like racing games, and I really enjoyed this one. I'm also the kind of person who plays racing games to relax, so I can handle some repetitiveness. Blur is a really straightforward arcade racer without much variety but the core gameplay is just so good. One of the very few games I've seen that lets you choose between very different handling styles ('Drifty' vs 'Grippy' cars) and still keeps things balanced, without noticeable rubberbanding. Powerups are fun, the car & track selection is small but high-quality (incl. Mount Haruna), overall just a very tight game. 8/10
With minimal graphics settings, runs great on older Windows machines but unplayably slow on Linux/Wine. Note that I have not tried online multiplayer.
NFSU is a classic arcade racer responsible for popularizing the "Fast & Furious street racing" subgenre of games. This game is extremely nostalgic for me as it was my first introduction into Need for Speed which cemented my love of cars as a kid.
While it's fun to see the beginning of the golden age of NFS, with its very quaint car list (Dodge Neon? Mitsubishi Lancer which is not an Evo?), I actually don't think this game holds up very well. Underground 2 is superior in almost every way. The one thing that this game does better is track designs: jumps over bridges, off-road sections, canals, various shorctuts - all these things make the driving more fun. The city in Underground 2 is larger but more boring in comparison. All these issues were fixed in Most Wanted, however, and in general the latter games are much more refined. 6/10
It's a game from 2003 so in theory it runs great on old hardware and through Wine, but only if you can get past the DRM. Sadly, racing games get tangled up with all sorts of legal bullshit, securing contracts with car manufacturers and so on, so it's very rare for older titles to survive in any reasonable format. Piracy exists but is very hit-or-miss on Linux: obviously DRM was never intented to run on Linux, but cracks and no-CD patches aren't the most robust code in the world either.
-- gardenapple 2022-07-22
