2021 has been an incredible year for the PlayStation 2 modding scene. The PS2 may be over twenty years old now, but the community around it is still quite strong. Earlier this year, MechaCon was dumped in full. This allowed […]
Developer: Monolith Productions, Nightdive StudiosPublisher: Nightdive StudiosPlatform: PC – GOG, Steam I first tried to play Blood years ago but failed due to extreme inability on my part. The game seemed way too tough to even survive the first level! […]
Director: Greydon ClarkWriter: Dana Olsen, Michael Spound I didn’t know quite what to expect from Wacko. Horror comedies are all over the place these days, but they were still a fairly new concept in the 80s. And like many 80s […]
Director: Michael Anderson Writers: Edward Abraham, Valerie Abraham I was recently introduced to Vinegar Syndrome. These purveyors of obscure genre films quickly caught my attention due to the fact that they released many films I wanted – and many I didn’t know […]
Director: Anthony Hickox Writer: Clive Barker, Peter Atkins Year: 1992 The original Hellraiser left quite an impression on me. Not only was it creepy, but it had a powerful visual aesthetic that stands up today. Years ago I watched the sequel and didn’t […]
Developer: State of Play Games
Publisher: State of Play Games
Platform: Mobile – iOS PC – Steam
Puzzle game fans are not lacking in choice when it comes to games they can play. The genre is simply saturated with games of all varieties, from rhythm/music based puzzlers to a multitude of match-3 titles. KAMI isn’t like most popular games and instead focuses on the task of making an entire screen one color. This sounds easy until you get presented with multi-colored screens with complex patterns and only have a few moves to complete them in. So, KAMI is just the kind of puzzle game some are looking for – one that’s simple to understand but very hard to complete.
At first, it might seem like KAMI is easy. Over the first few stages you are presented with screens that only have two or three colors. It’s not hard to recognize which color you should slap down to make the whole thing one color. Of course, these are just the tutorial stages. After that, the game quits taking it easy and requires a more thoughtful approach. Where should you click and with what color? Most stages require some degree of practice (and a little guessing) until finally figuring out their trick.
The game certainly gives you a hand. At the start of each new puzzle section it always starts off with one that will teach you how to solve later puzzles in the section. Unfortunately, the first puzzle is always the easiest, meaning you’ll need more than that information to complete the rest. Each always requires you to finish at par or one move over it. Anything more and you’re greeted with a big “fail” sticker! There’s a hint function available but unfortunately it’s a little odd. It grants 10 credits every 24 hours which means you’re limited in hints per day. This is simply a holdover from the mobile version, since there is no way to “buy” more credits on Steam.
No discussion of KAMI is complete without talk of the visuals. The game is gorgeous! It is styled after paper (“kami” itself is a name of a type of origami paper) and the simplicity is very appealing. When you lay down a new color, the corresponding paper pieces all fold away in unison. It’s a very relaxing experience thanks to the light sound effects and attractive color combinations. Perhaps the only odd part is that no music plays during puzzles. Maybe this was to allow players to focus, but a gentle background track probably wouldn’t hurt.
If you’re not a fan of exerting your brain over games then run far away from KAMI. It’s tough, but satisfying for players willing to get into each puzzle. There are 63 puzzles in all, 18 of which are premium (pay) content from the mobile version. Those who want to buy KAMI should definitely grab it on PC and let their brains get to work!
4 out of 5 alpacas
Review code provided
About our rating system
Over at Chic Pixel, a buddy of mine has started hosting themed game-alongs each month. The first was based on Falcom games in January, and now that February has rolled around a new theme has been chosen. Anne has christened February as Dating Sim Month! As I adore dating sims/visual novels/etc, this was something I simply had to share with the readers of Pixel Pacas.
Basically, these game-alongs serve as a good way to get you to play more games but they also foster community discussion on the theme. If you want to participate, all you have to do is choose a game that in some way could be considered romantic and get playing! This could include visual novels with romantic leads to pursue such as Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, games with stat building like the Tokimeki Memorial series (or Nicole, a Western dating sim), and stuff that just includes dating like Rune Factory 4 or practically any Harvest Moon! The goal is for lots of people to participate and have fun – not to shut someone out if they don’t own a “true” dating sim.
Participants are free to play and share their experiences via Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, blog, or any other easily-accessible method. The hashtag for this event is #DatingSiMonth. Yes, there’s only one “M” in there so don’t get confused (like I initially did!). All this information is available in more detailed form on Chic Pixel so head on over!
Developer: MumboJumbo
Publisher: MumboJumbo
Platform: Nintendo DS PC – Big Fish Games, Steam
The Midnight Mysteries series consists of four hidden object games. The first is The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy, and so far, is the only one I’ve played. As the name implies, your focus is on the famed writer. The “conspiracy” in question is his death. To this day there has never been a definitive cause cited for his unusual predicaments surrounding his death. Midnight Mysteries takes the slant that Poe was murdered – and it’s your goal to figure out who did it.
Gameplay itself is primarily hidden object style. This means that you’re presented with a static screen cluttered with objects and your goal is to find specific things. Unlike most hidden object games, this one sometimes provides strange names for items. I’m not sure why this was done, but it doesn’t enhance the experience any. For the most part, objects are hidden in plain sight very fairly, although a few items sometimes get squished into the very corners of a screen. I wouldn’t look there much, leading to some usage of the hint system.
Hints are plentiful and come in the form of birds. If you see one, just click on it and a new hint will be added to your system! Hints actually just reveal the location of an object. If you get stressed and start clicking frantically, you’ll lose the ability to see the outline of objects for a brief period of time. These outlines are useful when the game gives you a weirdly-named object, or you simply want to see what exactly they’re asking for. Overall, there’s little to stand in the player’s way.
The biggest issue I had playing The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy was simply that it runs at 800×600. In fullscreen, it made things fairly ugly, and in windowed mode the window was too small. I sometimes had to lean closer to the screen in order to view everything on it. This is all a shame since the visuals are quite nice most of the time. My best solution is to lower your computer’s screen resolution while playing so it’s easier to view the object-filled scenes.
There might be a story in this game but it’s barely important. All I cared about was finding all the objects with as little help as possible. Doing so took around three hours, and it was acceptable. It wasn’t the best hidden object game ever, but the Midnight Mysteries series shows promise. I’ll play the next three soon.
2 out of 5 alpacas
We’re venturing into new and exciting territory here on Pixel Pacas… Interviews! Since we have such adoration for independent and otherwise interesting games we figured this would be a nice new feature of the site. Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading the interviews too! Our first interview is with Michael Stearns, who alongside Daniel Roth and Jeff Ball, created one fantastically fun game by the name of Tiny Barbarian DX.
Pixel Pacas: How did StarQuail games get started? Were there any other independent developers you looked up to at the time?
Michael Stearns: We started quite a while back, though we had some trouble getting started and didn’t release anything until 2006. As we were working on those projects, I think the indie developer (as we’d call them) that I looked up to the most was Moonpod, they were really pushing for slick production values that not many indies were doing then. Generally I take a lot more inspiration from 16-bit console developers. Those were the games I loved and wanted to see more games like, I strongly believed there were a lot of people like me who wanted that, and I knew that those games were made by fairly small teams and couldn’t have taken too long to make, so I figured with current development tools we could do something similar. Of course, it turns out that making these games is a lot of work, so it took quite a while to really get going!
PP: The Tiny Barbarian DX Kickstarter was a success but was there ever a point you feared it wouldn’t make it? What do you think most drew people to the project to fully fund it?
MS: We had a really strong start, but it wasn’t timed very well, right before Thanksgiving weekend in the US. So on those first few days it showed every indication of meeting the goal, but the holiday really slowed things down, and I felt like maybe I’d ruined my chances by letting it get so close, and then Christmas would be coming up soon the next month. But I’d also looked a lot at other game Kickstarter projects and I’d seen that games that had a strong start tended to make it, the ones that didn’t seemed to be in trouble from the beginning, so I felt pretty confident.
I think the thing that worked for our game, and any game really, is that we had a game that people wanted to play. You just look at a thing and go “hey, I really want that.” There’d be moments in the trailer that just show those little touches, like deflecting an arrow or hopping on the cat or seeing the enemies climb up at the start. Coming at the game with a lot of “stuff” at that initial reveal makes a really strong impression.
PP: When designing Tiny Barbarian DX (or even the original Tiny Barbarian), what game-specific inspiration(s) did you pull from?
MS: Oh, there were quite a few! From a visual, thematic kind of standpoint I was thinking a lot about older arcade games like Rastan, Karnov, and Rygar. These are games that I have to admit I never really liked, but always found really intriguing, they had interesting settings. But for other stuff, probably the biggest inspiration was Shinobi 3, which had a fun up-close attack (I always wanted to use it instead of the ranged attack!) and kept the game feeling really diverse, like you’d ride on a horse in one level, or there’d be a big elevator in another, it always felt fresh and that’s what I tried to recreate. The elevator in Tiny Barbarian DX is a really cool set piece but it’s also a really obvious homage to Shinobi 3’s elevator. Instead of guys with guns crawling through the walls, I put in little guys with blow darts. (I always think of blow darts as a funny weapon for some reason!)
PP: Conan the Barbarian is noted as one of the main inspirations for the game. What about the sword and sorcery world made you want to create a game in the same vein?
MS: It was actually Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser that got me into Sword & Sorcery, and what drew me in was because, see, in high school I had read all these sprawling epic stories like Wheel of Time in particular, and they just started to become tiresome. I still liked that sort of theme, but when I found S&S, maybe this is obvious, but it hadn’t really occurred to me that Fantasy didn’t have to be “epic,” it could be about these smaller-scale conflicts that are more personal. The stories were shorter, and in the cases of the ones I really liked–I may get in trouble here–better written! So I thought that was a bit like the old video games that I like so much, they’re much shorter but also much denser, and that’s what I like in a game. So it seemed like a good match, and I had never played a Conan game that I really liked, so I thought I’d try with a Conan-esque.
PP: What is it about pixel art that made it the perfect choice for Tiny Barbarian? Do you find the style equally, less, or more expressive than polygons?
MS: For Tiny Barbarian, besides the S&S concept, the other thing that inspired it was just making the character. This isn’t a good way to develop a game, but this is a case where the player sprite was the first thing I did. I had been thinking about how to do my barbarian-themed game idea, and I just thought it would be a funny interpretation of the character to make him so low res, and that’s really where the title came from, he has a very small presence on screen. And I think the “old” look of the game really meshes with the old feel of the pulpy serials that originally ran those stories. I would say you can definitely be more expressive with higher resolution art, either 2D or 3D, but it’s different–a high res character doing pantomime or not talking doesn’t feel right the way a low-def character does.
PP: How did you guys manage to make Tiny Barbarian DX’s music so awesome? What is your favorite track?
MS: That’s ALL Jeff Ball–he is the secret! He was already a fan of classic games but he spent some time researching the types of games he wanted it to sound like, and he would focus on the “feeling” that a certain section was meant to evoke. A really good example would be the Wizard battle theme, where I wanted this ominous quality to match my artwork, but he made a song that was surprisingly upbeat, because he felt it was important that the player not lose heart or be overwhelmed here. And I was resistant at first, but it was a great song and before long I couldn’t imagine something else playing there.
My favorite tracks are the dungeon theme, and then the palace, when you bust in through a wall and the music starts with that crash. Also all the boss themes, I really like those.
PP: What were some of the first video games you ever played? What do you play today?
MS: Well, we’ll keep this brief! The very first game I remember playing was Frog Bog on Intellevision, which a friend of my dad owned. Later we’d get an NES, but the first game that really turned me on to games to the extent where I realized that video games were amazing and a thing I might seriously want to do and made me kind of obsessed was Sonic the Hedgehog, and later Gunstar Heroes. Last year (2013) my favorite games were Volgarr the Viking, Super Mario 3D World, and Pikmin 3. I turned into a Sega fan with the Genesis but these days I appreciate Nintendo more than ever. 🙂
PP: For all those who have yet to play Tiny Barbarian DX, why should they give it a try?
MS: Oh gosh I’m bad at this, this is why we have trailers and gameplay footage, you should be able to tell easily if you are interested just by looking! But if you love old school games, especially from the 16-bit period, then you should definitely give it a look. There are lots of games claiming to have been inspired by that era but not all of them actually capture the feel successfully, and I hope you’ll agree that Tiny Barbarian DX does!
Also we should mention the episodic style–three new episodes will be added to the game over time at no additional cost, they’re just free updates, so the game will continue to get more interesting. You can get it now and be ahead of the crowd!
Thanks for interviewing us and I hope you’ll love the game!
A big thanks goes out to Michael Stearns of StarQuail Games for allowing us to have an interview!
If you missed out on our Tiny Barbarian DX review you can check it out right here. Feel free to let us know how we can improve future reviews, or even suggest people that you would like to see interviewed!
The contest has concluded! Congratulations to CaEl84, Dan, Lexkun, Sean, and RadiantCookies!
Hello and welcome to our latest contest on Pixel Pacas! Earlier this month we reviewed a title called The Cat Lady and really, really dug it. If you are up to try this depressing adventure game then this is the perfect opportunity. We’ve got five codes to give away thanks to Screen 7 Games!
Here are your options for entering our giveaway.
Option One:
1. Follow our Twitter account – @PixelPacas
2. After you’ve followed us, post the official contest tweet: All adventure game fans should play The Cat Lady. I haven’t yet, which is why I want to win! Pick me, @PixelPacas ! wp.me/p3taEI-sL
Option Two:
1. Comment on this post with why you’re excited to play The Cat Lady.
Note that you are allowed to do both options! This will grant you two entries into the giveaway instead of one. If you do both, make sure you tell us your Twitter handle in the blog comment so the entries get paired up.
Our The Cat Lady giveaway ends on Sunday – February 2nd at 10 AM PST. Good luck!
If you’d like to stay in the loop about our contests and content our Twitter is always kept up to date. But if you don’t use Twitter, we also have a Steam Group that is updated whenever a new giveaway goes live.
Developer: Origin Systems
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PC – DOS, GOG*
Wing Commander II picks up where the first game left off, with one slight problem… The Tiger’s Claw, which served as your home base, has been destroyed. Despite commendable efforts in the past, everyone thinks you were a traitor and blew it up! As such, this game picks up with your pilot completely disgraced, forced to work dull ferrying missions.
As the Kilrathi step up their attacks, everyone is needed in the fight – even you. As the game progresses, you’re able to show your worth to the crew although some still harbor their suspicions. Things only get worse once a murder occurs and everyone knows there is certainly a traitor aboard. Still, missions are passed down to you to complete, in much the same fashion as the last game.
What’s different this time around is how much attention is paid to story. In the past, story segments were mostly unveiled by talking to pilots in the cafeteria. This was good for getting a feel of each character but not so much for stringing together a truly interesting narrative. Now there are story segments between each mission (alongside mission briefings) which do much better at involving the player in Wing Commander’s world. There were definitely times I was surprised and saddened over events that took place.
Gameplay has changed little. The biggest change is some new ships to pilot with their own special abilities. Beyond that though, everything is much the same. Using either the keyboard or mouse you engage in dogfights with the Kilrathi and try to make it out alive. It’s still as hard as ever, but Wing Commander II retains the ability to “lose” fights and still continue the story. There are only a few occasions where ejecting causes a game over. Unfortunately, when there are a lot of fighters on screen (or meteors), the game slows tremendously.
All in all, Wing Commander II is a great improvement over the original game in the ways I most wanted it to be. It has a deeper story, some improved graphics, and is still a fun experience. The GOG release includes Special Operations 1 and 2 expansion packs as well, although it lacks Speech Accessory Pack which patched in far more voice acting. It’s amazing how well this game still stands up as an action packed and entertaining ride.
4 out of 5 alpacas
Review code provided
About our rating system – *Affiliate Link
Developer: Spicy Horse
Publisher: Kiss Label
Platform: PC – GameTap, GOG*
American McGee’s Grimm was an interesting experiment when it launched in 2008. The 23-part episodic series came out in three seasons and was presented by GameTap. It was part of their “original content” lineup, which I don’t think has seen much attention since. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that the gaming world was quite ready for episodic games at the time. The product will hopefully get a second wind once it launches on Steam.
American McGee apparently really loves fairy tales. After all, his best known products are based on one (the Alice series). American McGee’s Grimm doesn’t focus on one story but a whole heaping bunch of them. Each episode tackles one from Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ expansive literary library. As a fan of fairy tales and their history, I was quite eager to give the game a shot.
As it turns out, the gameplay is very minimal. Mostly, you explore the worlds as a gross little gnome monster named Grimm. His goal is to change stories by dirtying them up. Because he is such a stinky, yucky fellow, all he has to do is wander over the fanciful landscape to turn it dark. Townsfolk and cute critters will attempt to clean the world as you do so, but once you have enough power even they are changed into disgusting/scary versions of themselves.
Mainly all you have to do is walk and “paint” the world. The more things get turned, the stronger Grimm’s powers become. Eventually, he can transform everything around him. However, each stage usually just wants you to reach a certain level of yuckiness before proceeding on to the next area. Everything gets reset at that point and you go at it again.
If you don’t want to simply enjoy the landscape, stories, and ruckus caused by Grimm then this won’t be a fun game at all. However, if you like seeing fairy tales reverted to more crude and dangerous versions then it’s worth the time. Maybe. Playing through all three seasons takes over a dozen hours and there are points where the repetitive play is too much. American McGee’s Grimm looks great and offers an entertaining story to play along with.
3 out of 5 alpacas
Review code provided
About our rating system – *Affiliate Link
Developer: Running With Scissors
Publisher: Running With Scissors
Platform: PC – Desura, Direct, GOG*, Green Man Gaming, Steam
For better or for worse, Postal 2 is one of the games that people know about even if they’ve never played it. The original postal aroused suspicion and excitement in the gaming community, but not nearly as much as its sequel would. With an ad campaign proclaiming it was only “as violent as you want to be” it was pretty hard to ignore.
Postal 2 tells the story of Postal Dude’s life from Monday to Friday (and Saturday/Sunday if you play Apocalypse Weekend). He’s got the same problems that we all do. He has to run go to work (and get fired), cash a check (with a long line at the bank), and simply make it through the week without, well, going postal. Apparently you can actually make it through the week as a complete pacifist, but every step of the way the game is trying to make you act violently.
The best method of completing it is also through violence. Otherwise, it just seems an increasingly difficult experience. After completing any task, gun wielding NPCs always come charging in for no apparent reason. Firefights like these are tough to survive without taking down enemies yourself. In any case, the experience is all rather simplistic. Each day you will walk to locations, complete a task, get attacked, and then proceed forward. What Running With Scissors hoped to accomplish was keeping players entertained thanks to the wacky world and characters.
Paradise, Arizona is anything but its namesake. Instead, it takes on all the worst facets of American culture. Outward racism, extreme violence, homophobia, and more hang around every corner. Quite frankly, it’s incredibly off-putting to me and probably would be to many other modern players. Seeing a shop plainly labelled “Queers”, men in turbans who wreak havoc on a church, and everything else is incredibly disconcerting. In a way, Postal 2 perfectly lampoons how screwed up America can be with hate, but seems to have too much fun glorifying the issues. Jokes pertaining to O.J. Simpson, hanging chads, and Heaven’s Gate are also (expectedly) dated.
Gameplay certainly functions but it’s tougher than you might expect. Honestly, I’d suggest going the cheat code route if you really want to enjoy the game. Otherwise it is quite the chore. Postal 2 Complete offers the Share the Pain multiplayer expansion but good luck finding a multitude of players to use it with. Apocalypse Weekend is a worthwhile expansion if you need more days with Postal Dude. Postal 2 serves mostly as an example of a very strange point in gaming history.
1 out of 5 alpacas
The contest has concluded! Congratulations to chiff!
Hello and welcome to our latest contest on Pixel Pacas! Today we’re doing something a little unorthodox by giving away a title that has not been reviewed on the site. Well, maybe it’s not completely shocking as I did review it on HardcoreGamer. In any case, Continue?9876543210 is the game and you’ve got a shot to win it!
Here are your options for entering our giveaway.
Option One:
1. Follow our Twitter account – @PixelPacas
2. After you’ve followed us, post the official contest tweet: I have no idea what Continue?9876543210 is about and that’s exactly why I want to play! Pick me, @PixelPacas ! wp.me/p3taEI-ss
Option Two:
1. Comment on this post with why you’re excited to play Continue?9876543210.
Note that you are allowed to do both options! This will grant you two entries into the giveaway instead of one. If you do both, make sure you tell us your Twitter handle in the blog comment so the entries get paired up.
Our Continue?9876543210 giveaway ends on Sunday – January 26th at 10 AM PST. Good luck!
If you’d like to stay in the loop about our contests and content our Twitter is always kept up to date. But if you don’t use Twitter, we also have a Steam Group that is updated whenever a new giveaway goes live.
Developer: minori
Publisher: MangaGamer & No Name Losers
Platform: PC – MangaGamer*
High school is a tough time for anyone. Not only are you studying like mad to pass classes, you’re also worried about the ever-approaching future. Then there’s the whole issue of romance… Fall for a classmate, realize they don’t love you back, or maybe it all works out. In ef – the first tale, players are presented with perhaps the most honest depiction of love, and all the trouble that comes with it, seen in a visual novel.
February 3rd, 2014 
