QCF: Save Me Mr. Tako!

 bought my first Game Boy when I was eight years old…I guess labor laws weren't what they used to be, because I was on the payroll for a paper route with the Barrie Advance in the third grade. Anyway, I loved my Game Boy back then more than I like some of my family today, and the old black on the green screen will always invoke a certain nostalgia for days long past. 30 years is a long-ass time.

However, as it turns out, Nicalis' Save Me Mr. Tako! instantly brings me back to my childhood as no other game has in a long time. It has the look–It has–the sound–it has the gameplay, and best of all, it's on a portable system.—kind of.

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QCF: Remilore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore

oguelike games in various genres are a fixture in the gaming landscape more now than ever before. It's no surprise that a lot of these games have made their way to the Nintendo Switch, given that the platform allows for these kinds of games to be played anywhere and Roguelikes, in general, have a very pick up and play quality to them, to begin with.

Nicalis is one of the latest publishers to make a Roguelike happen on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4; developed by Pixelore, and Remimory, Remilore: Girl Lost in the Lands of Lore is a lighter version of this punishing subgenre –known affectionately as a “Roguelite”, which is much more approachable than many other hardcore titles available in the Roguelike subset. So what makes this a game to check out? Let's take a closer look.

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QCF: Crystal Crisis

n the short time since its release, the Nintendo Switch has obtained a fantastic selection of third-party games for almost every genre, but only Nicalis has really striven to have at least one quality game from every genre on the platform. Crystal Crisis is their recent entry in the Puzzle arena, and boy, does it do a good job of filling that niche.

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PPR Presents The Golden Zonkies: Class Of 2018

s far as years for Video Games go, 2018 wasn’t that bad. For starters, the distribution landscape received a culture shock with the innovative premise of Xbox Gamespass, Sony landed some truly blockbuster exclusives for the PlayStation 4, and Nintendo managed to plant a Switch in over 22.86 Million households since its launch.

2018 wasn’t the best year for a God awful lot of reasons, but we can all take solace in the fact that at least in terms of video games, it did pretty OK, and  we would love to celebrate that that.

And what better way to do that by bringing you our trademark Game of the Year podcast, The Golden Zonkies! This year also marks the first time that we have changed up our format for the special mega cast—we’re doing away with categories!  Now, bear in mind, we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, only, we’re not doing by a respective genre, or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of five, and before we even get into that, we’ll also do a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year. We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to previous format, and conclude the show from there.

There you have it; welcome to the latest class of the Golden Zonkies, we hope you kick back and enjoy the show!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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QCF: Nairi: Tower of Shirin

 believe that I may have spent more time thinking about writing the review for Nairi: Tower of Shirin than I had played the actual game itself. Not that the game is easy, at least in my opinion; its puzzles had me scratching my head on several occasions. However, the reason for the delay in writing this review is that although I genuinely like this title and its blending of point and click adventure and visual novel, glaring issues in controls, game design and it’s anti-climactic wrap-up has me thinking twice about recommending it to Switch owners.

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QCF: Sonic Mania Plus

fter less than a year from its initial release, the folks over at Head Cannon, Pagoda West, and some other new faces at work have released a new expansion to the critically successful Sonic Mania, with Sonic Mania Plus. The extra content includes a new arranged campaign mode with remixed levels, a four-player split-screen competitive mode, and the inclusion of two more playable characters, (both of which haven’t been seen a commercial sonic title in over 20 years,) and more.

While Sonic Mania proved that it was more than just a simple throwback release for the fans, however, the added “Plus” to the title’s re-release ironically struggles to augment the core package with any upgrade significant enough to differentiate it from the same game that casual players have already played all those months ago.

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QCF: Fox 'N Forests

hen people think about video game nostalgia, their minds immediately fix upon images of pixelated sprites, alongside beats of synthesized chiptune sounds, and other trademarks from the early years of the medium. With so many throwbacks, and love letters out on the market these days, developers are now more pressed to celebrate the past in a way that’s more innovative than a majority of the retro-inspired titles that are currently flooding storefronts; callbacks are now starting to pull from some of the more nuanced moments of gaming history.

Which brings us to Bonus Level Entertainment’s Fox ‘N Forests, a 2D action-platforming side-scroller that was Kickstarted back in 2016 in an effort to deliver a very specific kind of nostalgia—the kind that’s reserved for a majority of the early SNES titles that defined the system before fighting games swept the scene. While there’s plenty of fan service to indulge upon and enjoy in this self-aware romp, a majority of Fox ‘n Forest’s charm is fleeting at best, and largely obnoxious the rest of the time, or worse—all too forgettable.

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QCF: Lumines Remastered

s many can attest, falling-block type puzzle games are my jam. I love me some Tetris, Dr. Mario, Panel De Pon…you name it. If it has a block that falls and can be combinated with others for big score payouts, I'm there. One such game that I've spent a lot of time with over the course of its existence through many iterations of the franchise is Lumines, originally released on the PSP in 2005 with numerous sequels finding their way mainly to Sony consoles and handhelds with the odd installment appearing on XBLA.

Lumines ended up being one of the more addictive puzzle games I've played, going so far as instilling intense “Tetris-Effect” visions of the playfield on shower tile walls, square linoleum patterns on the floor, even just in my creeping subconscious with my eyes closed before drifting to sleep. At a certain point, I was also one of the best players in the world, holding high, top-10 rankings in the XBLA version and utterly crushing all of the local competition.

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