Ikaruga (2001)
Platforms: Windows/Playstation/Switch
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Various
I’ve been buying different versions of Ikaruga for 20 years. I’ll probably keep doing that as it is released for the black boxes under my TV. This is a 2D vertical shooter. It is also a puzzle game where if you are black, black bullets do not hurt you. If you are white, white bullets do not hit you.
You can of course just play for survival on Easy, and I recommend that. If you play more, you can bump that to Normal. I’ve played the game for 20 years I’m still scared of Hard. The secret about these shooting games is the fans of them are not very good at them either. We just like playing. Ikaruga has a lot of different ways to play it. You can defeat the bosses just by being a pacifist and running out the clock. It is a beautiful, simple, and deep game.
Dark Souls (2011)
Platforms: Windows/Playstation/Xbox/Switch
Developer: From Software
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Dark Souls is video games realized. You descend from a castle town, dodging fire breathing dragons and the shambling undead to an impossibly deep swamp under a sewer system. You then take the road back to the castle town to a new golden city, past a dangerous and trap filled forest and fortress.
The game is simultaneously filled with complete bullshit and perfectly beatable if you take your time or change your way of thinking. Maybe you can just throw firebombs at the boss, or shoot arrows, or roll around like a maniac. It is a comedy when a giant bowling ball crushes you, or the poison saps your life before you can heal. That you take one step too far and fall to your death.
It is about embracing failure and perseverance. I find it amazing that I had so much trouble with my first playthrough (down to breaking a controller (not proud.)) This year I did a complete playthrough almost casually. I am not saying I Became Great at the game, so much as I understood the rhythms. Sometimes you just have to run. Other times you do have to Become Great.
I’ve caught myself multiple times recently playing and thinking about other video games just to remember the ghost filled flooded city, or a library-prison covered in deadly crystals or two giant emotionless Knights guarding the halfway point of the game. It is shocking how much amazing things are buried in Dark Souls. And it is waiting for you to Become Great and find them.
Will note that you cannot pause Dark Souls, even offline, so if your lifestyle does not encourage extended non-interruption feel free to skip.
Unpacking (2021)
Platforms: Windows/Playstation/Xbox/Switch
Developer: Witch Beam
Publisher: Humble Bundle
The idea of this game is very simple. You are wordlessly unpacking things in a room, and then an apartment, and then a larger apartment. You are watching a girl grow up through her possessions. You as her (unseen) placing them where they seem to belong. There is a narrative if this woman’s life that emerges as you go through her stuff in a new location. I found it charming and cute.
Metal Slug 3 (2000)
Platforms: Windows/Playstation/Switch
Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
It’s on everything. It is the pinnacle of 90s pixel art. The developers almost killed themselves making it. It is almost too much of a video game. It is a 2D action game where you shoot crabs and aliens and yetis and nazis. You drive tanks and submarines. You can become Big from eatting too much food. Or a zombie sometimes.
Even if this is my own list I’ll tell you I like Metal Slug X better. That doesn’t have a beautiful stand-alone exe. If I told you to buy a Metal Slug Collection we’d be here longer than we already are. Get Metal Slug 3. It’s fantastic.
Slay The Spire (2019)
Platforms: Windows/Playstation/Xbox/Switch/Your Phone
Developer: Mega Crit
Publisher: Humble Bundle
Sometimes you are just too tired at the end of the night. You want to put on your own music or a podcast. You just want to choose an attack card or a block card. You want to do this for 40 minutes before realizing disastrously that you are going to lose. Maybe one night you get lucky and win. By the time you are sick of losing you will have spent 20 hours choosing attack or block cards. I don’t need to sell you on Slay The Spire. This is a card game that ends your day and doesn’t demand too much of your brain and absolutely none of your reaction speed. It has spawned dozens of imitators and it was in a line of games before it, but this is the one to play.
Credits
Words: Rudie
Screenshots: Various Longplays on Youtube, Rudie
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