PixlBit

I’ve got a feast of game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com for you all to chow down on.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  After reading them all, you should have nice fat bellies!  OK let’s begin!

The Plucky Squire (Switch)

Jot is the Plucky Squire and the titular hero of a series of children’s books in the game.  In the books, he goes on all sorts of adventures with his two best friends: an artist wizard named Violet and the rock n roll mountain troll Thrash.  With guidance from the wise wizard Moonbeard, the trio are able to defeat the evil Humgrump every time.  But one day, Humgrump figures out how to break the fourth wall and take over the book, sending things in from the real world and kicking things out.  So now it’s up to the Plucky Squire to hop in and out of the book, manipulating the pages himself while solving puzzles and defeating enemies.  The Plucky Squire is a (mostly) 2D action adventure game similar to Zelda.

The Smurfs: Dreams (Switch)

In the distant past, long before streaming services and 24-hour cartoon channels, there was a thing called Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Kids back then, me included, looked forward to this time because it was one of the only times TV was made just for kids.  And as a child of the 80s, one of the most popular of these cartoons I remember was The Smurfs.  Originally a European comic strip, The Smurfs gained popularity in the US from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.  I was never a super big fan of it, but I watched it anyway because, one, kids will watch pretty much anything.  And two, it came on right before the Pac-Man cartoon.  In recent years, The Smurfs have had a bit of a resurgence with a handful of computer animated movies and specials, and a new series on Nickelodeon.  And that begat a few Smurfs games, too.  I’ve reviewed quite a few of them, which include 3D platformers, kart racers, and even educational titles.  The Smurfs: Dreams is a fixed camera 3D platformer, so it plays most like Super Mario 3D World.  In the game, the evil Gargemel has sprinkled a magic potion on the Smurf Berry bushes, so when the Smurfs have breakfast the next morning, they instantly fall fast asleep and get lost in their dreams.  You play as a Smurf who has to enter the dream worlds to rescue the others.

8-bit Adventures 2 (Switch)

Back in the 16-bit days when I was a teen, I loved RPGs and couldn’t get enough of them.  Not so much now, but I do like it when someone makes a new retro inspired RPG that plays like the ones I used to enjoy.  Such is the case with 8-bit Adventures 2.  I’ve never played the first game in this series, so I don’t know what’s new, different, or improved.  It doesn’t do anything new or break the mold in any way, but it does feel like something I would’ve rented and played back in the day.

Goob N Balloons DX (PS4)

Goob N Balloons DX is a single screen, arcade style action game.  It plays most like Buster Bros., or Pang depending on where you’re from.  But it also has elements from other arcade classics like Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, etc.  In the game you play as a weird alien octopus thing and you can only move left and right on the bottom of the screen.  But by using the R stick, you can aim and fire shots in any direction to pop balloons before they hit you, because if they do it’s Game Over.

Super XYX (PS4)

Super XYX is a vertically scrolling shooter that tries to replicate the look and feel of something you’d see in arcades in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Moe Waifu H BlockBlast (PS4)

Well I’m not sure what the “Moe” means but “Waifu” is what you hook your internet up to, right?  Nah, I’m just joking.  I know it means like a pretend girlfriend or something.  Anyway, in this game you can unlock pictures of anime ladies in different outfits by playing an Arkanoid and BreakOut style block breaking ball and paddle game. 

Ultimate Holidays (Switch)

Have you ever wanted to create your own vacation scenes on a postcard?  Yeah, me neither.  But if you ever wanted to, now you can with the Ultimate Holidays app on Nintendo Switch.

Rogue Sentry (PS4)

In the future, robots have taken over and imprisoned all the humans in a maze-like fortress.  You are a rogue sentry robot who abandons your post to rescue all the humans and escape the stronghold.  Rogue Sentry is a twin stick shooter featuring black and white retro graphics that remind me of old arcade games from the 1970s.  For some reason, the game also makes me think of the early 80s arcade classic Berserk, too.

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading my reviews and posting ‘likes’ and comments on them.  I do appreciate it.  Do you have nice fat bellies now?  Later!  --Cary