Also, carrying around floppy mops and killing people with them makes this game pretty incredible.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild is quite possibly Nintendo’s most anticipated release in history. Fortunately, it’s safe to say that the title delivered in force! The game was met by resounding positivity from critics and gamers alike. In this episode of the Two Button Crew show, Simeon and Scott are trying to dissect the specifics of what makes this particular entry in the Legend of Zelda series so special.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
SteamWorld Heist is an indie game developed by Image & Form, who brought us the immensely popular SteamWorld Dig game and its sequel.
Heist takes place after the events of Dig 2, as our robotic characters struggle to cling to existence after Planet Earth has been shattered.
Resources are scarce, and that’s why our trusty Steambot pirate leader Piper and her scrappy crew are exploring space and raiding enemy ships for loot.
The objective of the game is to enter a series of procedurally generated ships, accomplish certain missions like obtaining epic swag, rescuing robots in distress, or destroying big baddies.
Combat consists of moving your characters behind cover, lining up shots, and firing weapons that you’ve collected from across space. Many times, destroying all enemies is not a requirement for success, so it pays to play smart and keep the mission in mind.
Along your journey, you will collect a plethora of weapons in many categories and a ragtag bunch of crew members with different abilities. It’s up to you to determine your loadout for each mission, and any characters that survive the ensuing encounters will gain more experience points and level up.
Controls are flawless. Whether you’re playing with Joy-Con, Pro Controller, or even touching the screen without the need for any buttons, the game adapts to the way you want to play. You can gain a bit more accuracy by aiming with the touch screen if you prefer, even if you play the rest of the game with analog sticks and buttons.
Gameplay in SteamWorld Heist is turn-based, but fast-paced and exciting during the player’s turn. Aiming is a nonstop challenge that gets easier with experience, and as you learn how your character’s “breathe” and move naturally as you line up a shot. Sometimes, I wished that I could speed up the enemies’ turn, especially when multiple Scrappers and turrets were on screen. A “zoom-out” button also would have been helpful for scouting a ship, but panning around works fine.
It’s hard to complain about the graphics in this game, which are high definition with a stylized art approach. Presentation is equally good, with quick load times, a driving atmospheric soundtrack, simple user interface, and genuinely funny and clever writing that endears you to the characters and their world.
SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition boasts a healthy amount of content, including DLC previously sold on other platforms. A large range of difficulty settings promises replayability, as well as New Game+ mode unlocked after beating the game (which took me over 10 hours). The downloadable content adds a playable character, interesting side-missions, and a load of hats with pop-culture references.
Simeon and I both played through this title simultaneously, and it was really fun to compare our loadouts, including all the optional characters Simeon unlocked while I was impatiently pressing through the main storyline. Exploration and strategizing is rewarded in this title!
SteamWorld Heist is easily recommendable to everyone that enjoyed Mario + Rabbids, the Worms series, or previous SteamWorld games. Heist has more limited movement options than Kingdom Battle, but is also available for the lower launch price of $20 on the Switch eShop, launching December 28th. To sum it up, it’s a challenging, rewarding, interesting, smooth, expansive game for a great value. Two Button Crew awards SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition an 8.25 out of 10. Buy it!
I often see newly released games being appraised for their graphics, controls, music, and price.
What the industry needs more of a focus on is simple: fun.
A game can have terrible graphics, no soundtrack, and clunky controls, but still be a lot of fun. Conversely, a beautiful and imaginative game can be boring and punishing.
Video games are a form of art, but that doesn’t mean they need to be treated with as much weight and gravitas as other mediums. Some critics don’t understand this and neglect to consider the fun factor, so take review scores with a grain of salt. A 7/10 game might be the most fun you and a friend have ever had.
#549 – Astro Duel! You’ve seen it on the Switch eShop, but maybe you’re not entirely clear on how it works or how it plays. Wonder no more – Crew Member Glen himself is here with the review to fill you in. Make smart choices with that money of yours!
Footage credit: Nintendo World Report TV
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#543 – Vroom in the Night Sky is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop. Is it worth it? No… unless you can have a good laugh at a game like we can! Vroom’s terrible translation lends itself to some hilarious jokes (at its expense, of course). Seriously, if you haven’t seen this game, it’s so worth watching the footage and hearing us pick it apart!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#536 – If you own a Nintendo Switch and you haven’t downloaded Thumper, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG! This rhythm game on the eShop is worth all 2,000 pennies you’ll drop on this gem. You’ll be intrigued, you’ll be awed, you’ll be stunned, you’ll be challenged… do it. Go forth and Thump.
Footage Credit – SwitchForce “Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
For real though, is Scott just being a pansy? (GET IT!?)
#535 – TumbleSeed is a cute, adorable, STINKING DIFFICULT indie game on the Nintendo Switch. Your only task is to roll a seed to the top of the mountain, but the game does everything in its power to stop you. Games like this straddle a fine line between fun and frustrating… where does TumbleSeed land?
Footage Credit – Polygon, SwitchForce “Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Bomberman is the perfect game for the Nintendo Switch – the portable home console that always has two controllers with it! Whether you’re doing some multiplayer showdown matches or teaming up to take on the story mode campaign, it’s always… a… BLAST!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
These is the part of the website where we write little snips of funny text relating to the clips below.
Snipperclips is a Switch exclusive game that makes excellent use of the system’s unique Joy-Con controllers. Playable alone and doubly fun with friends, this devious puzzler is charming, creative, and challenging – the “Three Cs” of puzzle games! What more could you want? Watch Ryan and Scott play through some of the tough levels as they discuss the game’s merits.
Shot by Alex Campbell
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
BoxBoxBoy! is the sequel to the hit downloadable puzzle game BoxBoy! for the 3DS that expands on the original, quite literally, as this time around you use two sets of boxes instead of one. While no prior experience with the original is needed, it really helps as the mechanics you learn over the course of an entire game you learn in a few levels. You’ll still be hopping on and throwing boxes, along with hooking onto ledges and snaking your way through narrow paths, and it’s all still a lot of fun.
Hooked on a feeling.
The only new idea is creating two sets of boxes, but that’s okay as it completely changes the way you have to solve the puzzles and sometimes significantly ramps up the difficulty. There’s still plenty of switches, spikes, and lazers to deal with and it definitely had me stumped for a while on more than one occasion. There are usually a few levels in a row where you use the same mechanic in increasingly difficult puzzles, only to ditch it for a long while and come back to it when you’ve forgotten about it. Absolutely fantastic level design and it made feel dumb for not realizing the solution much soon than I had. There are bonus levels in which you replay chunks of levels you previously completed except this time with either the ninja or the bunny costume from the first game, but you have a lot less boxes at your disposal.
Two sets of boxes, twice the challenge.
The collectible crowns are back once again. If you’re not familiar, think hidden coins from Mario, except you have a limit of boxes you can create until it disappears. Being the OCD gamer I am, I had to get all of them, and a few were extremely difficult. It adds a lot to the way you approach levels and to the overall replay-ability.
BoxBoxBoy! really stacks up to the competition!
The more crowns you get, the more coins you get at the end of every level, which can be spent in the games shop. There you are able to purchase new costumes, short a quirky comics, and music from the game. All of the costumes you unlock from the original BoxBoy! transfer over too, which is a neat little addition.
There’s quite a lot of content for the price and is a great buy for the puzzle and platformer fan alike. While I recommend playing the original game first, this is a sequel that lives up to the original and shouldn’t be missed.
After being released in 1993, and re-released in color in 1998, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX is now available on the 3DS Virtual Console. It is developed and published by Nintendo.
Unlike most of the other Legend of Zelda games, Link’s Awakening does not involve you finding or rescuing Princess Zelda. Instead, Link’s ship has crashed on an island after a storm. It’s up to Link to find the eight instruments of the sirens to wake the Wind Fish so he can escape the island. Little does he know, the island holds a secret…
Puzzle solving in the dungeon.
If you’ve played any 2D Legend of Zelda game you know exactly how this plays. If not, it’s pretty basic. You start off in a main overworld and must find your sword. With sword in hand, you make your way to the various dungeons collecting the different instruments. In these dungeons you also collect a large variety of tools to help you along your journey, such as Roc’s Feather which allows you to jump, or the Power Bracelet which helps you move large rocks and pots. The dungeons are filled with puzzles and enemies with each one containing at least one mini-boss and one main boss. There are two main collectibles in Link’s Awakening, Pieces of Heart and Secret Seashells. The pieces of heart increase your overall health for every four you find and every time you collect a Secret Seashell it simply says, “If you find enough of them, something good is bound to happen.”
The DX version of the game includes and extra ‘Color Dungeon’, which if completed instead of rewarding Link with and instrument or Heart Container, gives him a choice between a Blue tunic (Cuts all damage Link takes in half) or a Red Tunic (Doubles all damage Link deals out). These tunics are extremely helpful.
It’s our old pal, Boo!
There are lots of references to other Nintendo games such as Kirby, a Yoshi doll, and a large variety of Mario’s enemies which are seen in wonderfully-done platforming sections.
The graphics are that of almost any Gameboy Color game. I found that this game’s visuals in particular still look simply fantastic and drew me in as much as the newer games.
If you enjoy Zelda games, or even adventure games at all, you owe it to yourself to play this game. The mystery of the story kept me wanting to play more to see everything unfold and captured me more than any other 2D Zelda. I can’t recommend this game enough.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening gets 5 opening chests out of 5.
Super Mario Run landed on the Apple iPhone and iPad App Store, and hopefully will make its way to Android before too long. It’s not quite the “endless runner” that some people have incorrectly labeled it, but instead is quite the interesting PUZZLE-platformer. This little mobile gem has given us more of a challenge and more enjoyment than we expected, so we’ll break down the whole experience for you in the video to help you decide if the $10 purchase price is worth it.
Shot by Alex Campbell
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
“Yeah, I think it would be great if we totally forgot about the pointer on the Wii Remote and arbitrarily used motion controls…! Dahur!” – Skyward Sword Developers
After battling the game for around a year, Simeon finally declared defeat over the evil Demise and saved Hyrule. It wasn’t a quick trip through this Wii classic, but Simeon was noting his experience along the way and he has returned from the journey to tell us all about it. With the game being recently released for download on Wii U’s eShop, this is a great opportunity to see if a revisit to this game is worth it for you!
Shot by Alex Campbell
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
