I enjoyed Android Assault Cactus in my review of this isometric twin-stick shooter. If you’re an Xbox One owner you can finally check it out on the 7th of November.
Android Assault Cactus is already available on Steam for Windows, macOS, and Linux for $15.
It looks like Mossmouth (Derek Yu) is attempting to appeal to dads and people who like dogs with this trailer for Spelunky 2, it’s working. No time table for release yet, but it’ll come to Steam (for Windows) and the PlayStation 4 first. It is being developed with Blitworks and Eirik Suhrke who is also working with Yu on the UFO 50 megacart.
For the first time the only controversy around a Wolfenstein game isn’t about the violence, nobody cares about that anymore. It’s from the republicans who feel like they’re being attacked for supporting fascists like Trump.
In moving the action to America, Bjork and MachineGames weren’t really out to comment on the current political climate. Work on The New Colossus began in 2014, and it’s a sequel to a game that began development in 2011. But current events have conspired to give the themes The New Colossus sets out to explore an uncomfortable relevance.
The game is reviewing well too, although I am not sure if this means that this is the end of Bethesda’s experiment with denying pre-release access to writers for review.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is out now for Steam on Windows as well as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The reviews are almost universally positive. Here is Dan Ryckert’s:
Make no mistake about it, Super Mario Odyssey is a weird game. It’s wrapped around a concept featuring sentient hats, enemy possession, and Bowser making wedding preparations, but actually playing the game feels very familiar. Gone are the polarizing FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine and the gravity-warping planetoids from the Galaxy games. While Mario may be able to occupy the bodies of numerous baddies and inanimate objects this time around, the experience feels more like Super Mario 64 than any of his other adventures.
The only downside is the motion controls. Chris Scullion talking about them in his review:
One thing that may irk some players is that Super Mario Odyssey tries its very best to make you use motion controls. Every time you start the game you get a splash screen suggesting you try it out because it offers extra moves.
Don’t worry: in reality, you don’t need to play with motion controls. There are three major moves that the game claims can only be performed with motion: throwing Cappy straight up into the air, throwing him down to roll him along the ground, and a spin attack.
Scullion also has a video guide for pulling off that spin attack move without using motion controls.
Super Mario Odyssey is available tomorrow for $60 on the Nintendo Switch.
There’s this tiny genre of games where you make things that make things, usually by clicking a bunch at first. Sometimes, there is a plot. Universal Paperclips by Frank Lantz and Bennett Foddy is that kind of game. It runs in your browser, and you construct paperclips by clicking on a button to make a paperclip. Things get complicated after that. Enjoy it.
The last game I covered in this genre, Spaceplan, was apparently just a prototype and the developer behind it put out the full game on iOS, Android, and Steam for Windows and macOS.
