Waltorious Writes About Games – Game-related ramblings.

Scratching That Itch: Keep It Together

On December 6, 2022

This is the one hundred forty-ninth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-ninth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is definitely a normal human. Nothing suspicious about it. Wait, did that part of its coat just… wriggle? It’s Keep It Together, by Fenreliana, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Don’t let them know you’re a coat of rats!

Everything depends on it!

History Lessons: Exile

By Waltorious

On November 30, 2022

In Uncategorized

Other History Lessons posts can be found here. If you’re looking specifically for console games, those are here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

After a brief step back in time to cover Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, we are back on track with our timeline for this series. Sort of. Exile is technically a remake of a game called XZR II by Telenet Japan which released for Japanese home computer systems in August 1988, about two months after Lord of the Sword, but the remake (which is the only version localized in English) arrived three years later in 1991, for both the Sega Genesis and the PC Engine CD/Turbografx-CD. Having been impressed by the Turbografx-CD hardware when playing Ys I & II for this series, I opted for that version of Exile.

Scratching That Itch: Sheepless Nights (Math Cardgame)

By Waltorious

On November 24, 2022

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred forty-eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-eighth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is secretly trying to teach us math. It’s Sheepless Nights (Math Cardgame) by Sander Voorn, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Study math easy with this relaxing and fun cardgame!

How about I tell you how easy it is, Sander Voorn? (OK it’s pretty easy)

Ori And The Blind Forest Is Great, But Also Frustrating

By Waltorious

On November 23, 2022

In Uncategorized

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’ve been wanting to play Ori And The Blind Forest for a long time. I’m late, as usual; the sequel, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, is already out and has already received much critical acclaim. Both games get namedropped often in discussions of the best Metroidvanias available today, so it was high time I took the first for a spin.

I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Scratching That Itch: Into The Flames

By Waltorious

On November 19, 2022

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred forty-seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-seventh random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has crept up to our fire, lurking just outside its light. It’s Into The Flames, by Adam Dixon, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A storygame about haunted journeys, designed to be played in front of a fire.

Come on Adam Dixon, light my fire.

See The Grid In Ticket To Earth

By Waltorious

On November 15, 2022

In Uncategorized

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

After finishing Tales of Illyria: Beyond The Iron Wall, I wanted to take a break and play a different mobile game before diving into the third and final game in the series, Tales of Illyria: Destinies. I looked around online for recommendations and eventually stumbled upon the excellently-named Ticket To Earth, by Robot Circus, which is also available for PC and Mac via Steam but seems at home on a mobile touchscreen. It looked to be something in the vein of Puzzle Quest and its ilk, combining tile-matching puzzles with role-playing tactical combat. I enjoyed (but never wrote about) Puzzle Quest and its sequel, so I decided to give Ticket To Earth a try. It turned out to be much better than I expected.

Scratching That Itch: OddyTree

By Waltorious

On November 12, 2022

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred forty-sixth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-sixth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is staggering into view, trying not to fall over. It’s OddyTree, by Zwi Zausch, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A tree odyssey, keep your balance and reach the edge of the birch-forest!

That hyphen makes it sound like someone who got both of their parents’ last names. Jennifer Birch-Forest.

Scratching That Itch: The Queen Returns

By Waltorious

On November 8, 2022

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred forty-fifth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-fifth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has written us a series of missives. It’s The Queen Returns, by James Chip, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A solo rpg about the fate of a country in the Queens absence .

When the Queen is gone, people have to play their role-playing games by themselves.

Scratching That Itch: My Friends And I Were Granted Three Wishes By A Cat Goddess And I Swear I Got Distracted When My Turn Came Around

By Waltorious

On October 25, 2022

In Uncategorized

This is the one hundred forty-fourth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred forty-fourth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality was supposed to wish to be the one hundred forty-third selection, but it got distracted. It’s My Friends And I Were Granted Three Wishes By A Cat Goddess And I Swear I Got Distracted When My Turn Came Around, by Alex Zandra, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

An illustrated light novel about cats, wishes, catgirls, and gender feels

I wasn’t sure what a “light novel” was, but it seems it’s basically what people used to call a novella. It’s about 60 pages long, spread over several chapters, and as the tagline suggests, it involves a lot of gender feels.

History Lessons: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

By Waltorious

On October 16, 2022

In Uncategorized

Other History Lessons posts can be found here. If you’re looking specifically for console games, those are here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

When I wrote about Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter, I celebrated finally getting my timeline in order for this series. I had started haphazardly, playing things and then realizing I should add other games that had come before, resulting in awkward jumps back and forth in time. With that post, however, I had finally finished playing catch up, and everything should have been in nice chronological order moving forward. But it only took one more post — about Sega’s Master System game Lord of the Sword — to make me realize I had to jump back in time again. Lord of the Sword’s design, which is basically an action platformer game but set in an open world inspired by role-playing games, reminded me of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, a game I really should have covered already. I wrote about Metroid, after all, and Simon’s Quest is the game that added the “vania” to Metroid to create the “metroidvania” genre.