I don’t see people talk about the Katamari Damacy games very much which is a shame because I think they’re delightful! I also wish more people talked about Cattails (especially the sequel, Cattails: Wildwood Story), these games deserve more love imo haha
I feel it. I feel the cosmos!
This is what me and my partner say to each other when we drink good coffee.
Katamari Damacy
These are apparently the remasters of the first two games for PC:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/848350/Katamari_Damacy_REROLL/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1730700/We_Love_Katamari_REROLL_Royal_Reverie/
From looking at Wikipedia and Steam, I don’t think that there’s a PC version of Me & My Katamari.
Cattails (especially the sequel, Cattails: Wildwood Story)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/634160/Cattails__Become_a_Cat/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882500/Cattails_Wildwood_Story/
All four games are also on Switch!! That’s where I played them!
The Katamari remasters are very well done as these things go. Just the right amount of graphical and compatibility boosting while not screwing with the gameplay, audiovisuals, or quirky vibes which made the originals so great.
I’m currently playing to a T, by the Katamari creator.
Not remotely similar, and hard to recommend to most people tbh… but it has the same joyful silliness that just makes me smile, somehow.
I saw an article about it!! I really want to play it but alas don’t have anything that can run it, but once I can get a PS5 it’s totally going on my shopping list!
One of the greatest games of all time from a design and gameplay perspective. There’s a reason it’s in the MoMA. The soundtrack is an all-timer as well.
Cattails series mentioned! I’ve replayed those two multiple times they’re so cute and the gameplay loop is so soothing and fun.
Cat Quest series (which is more dungeon-crawler, not cat sim) is also adorable and accessible but doesn’t seem to be mentioned too often.
Man I keep meaning to replay Wildwood Story but I know once I start again that’s all I’m doing for the next few day lol… I love the colony layout editor so much, spent so many hours fine-tuning my colony to make it exactly the way I wanted it
Cat Quest series
Kenshi. Ive only ever seen 1 person mention it in the year I’ve been on Lemmy.
It’s like depressed RuneScape.
… Was I that person?
I evangelize Kenshi like the Holy Nation evangelizes Okran.
Also…!
Kenshi has so much scale and depth it’s hard to explain what you “do” in the game I love it
Die.
A LOT
Kenshi
https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/
Ive only ever seen 1 person mention it in the year I’ve been on Lemmy.
I’ve brought it up a bunch as an example of a game that I like that’s really a “one-game genre” – it didn’t really get cloned, like most good games do. Kind of a bummer, because if you’ve played all of Kenshi, there’s not much more to do if you want more short of waiting for Kenshi 2 to be finished.
kagis
https://lemmy.world/post/5593904/3755382
https://lemmy.world/post/2703109/2113199
https://lemmy.world/post/7471136/4950578
https://lemmy.world/post/25365592/14990415
https://lemmy.world/post/10421126
There’s also a community here for it, [email protected]. Not much activity, though.
Kenshi is one of those great war crime simulators
Escape Velocity and its open-source spiritual successor, Endless Sky.
Escape Velocity also had a sequel or two done by Ambrosia Software themselves. I remember playing and enjoying them.
kagis
Escape Velocity Override and Escape Velocity Nova.
It looks like Ambrosia Software’s website is now down, so I assume that one can’t legally purchase it any more.
It looks like Escape Velocity was never ported to anything outside of classic MacOS, so playing it today probably entails obtaining a classic MacOS emulator and abandonware copies of the binaries.
While Endless Sky is neat and last I looked still getting expanded, it also didn’t have as much story content as the Escape Velocity series either (again, at least last I looked).
The image of each planet in Escape Velocity series (not really worth keeping IMHO, as they were saved at 8-bit depth) were done with KPT Bryce, a now out-of-print terrain generation and rendering software package. Probably one of the better-suited applications for it, as it was pretty good at letting one quickly turn out alien-looking landscapes. While there are newer terrain generation software packages, I have to say that Bryce did a lot of neat stuff and I don’t feel that there’s something that quite fills its “exploration” role in modeling and rendering software today. For example, procedural generation of textures using slope and altitude (so, for example, you could get rocky faces where generated terain was steep, or snow at high altitude on mountains).
Re. EV series ports - check the first link in my previous comment ;)
And I had the same experience with Endless Sky when I first found out about it some years ago. It has gotten a lot of updates since then, but I am holding out for a 1.0 release
Ah, gotcha!
EV Nova is what got me hooked on Star Citizen
Never played Escape Velocity, but Endless Sky was fantastic. Both the main quest lines had fantastic stories, especially the first one.
Dark messiah of might and magic
I was gonna post this too… Amazing game, combat mechanics in modern games still haven’t caught up. Also that ice spell makes the game.
Literally every battle mechanic in that game was top notch. Think linear single player Mordhau with spells and your character has demon strength.
Came here to post the same! It’s fantastic!
Dark messiah of might and magic
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2100/Dark_Messiah_of_Might__Magic/
Yep that one, I’ve got the CD at home.
Might and Magic anything beyond Heros of Might and Magic 3 is rarely if ever talked about. Although it was an awesome series.
ton of mentions until this day
Board games or video games?
Or The Game?
hey f$#@ you buddy I haven’t lost the game through the internet in awhile, that was a low swipe
👌
hide the sausage?
Why not both?
Slay the Spire - the video game based on board game mechanics
Slay the Spire the Board Game - based on the video game based on board game mechanics but in board game form!
The original mass effect trilogy. I know they’re very mainstream but no one talks about them anymore and I must have like 5k hours between the 3 games.
Perfect winter break games for just diving in and doing 20 hour long play sessions
mass effect trilogy
Looks like there’s currently a 90% off sale.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/
Same reason people don’t talk about Game of Thrones anymore. The last entry, Andromeda, was so disappointing it retroactively made people like the previous ones less :\
The combat in Andromeda was pretty sweet though even though the story sucked. I have it another shot not that long ago and once I figured out some of the profile swapping stuff the combat was really fun.
Freedom Fighters. Some mechanics were clunky but most were great and I really can’t think of any other games with such a good mix of strategy and quick-thinking/reaction gameplay. I’ve played it through at least 3 times!
Freedom Fighters
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1347780/Freedom_Fighters/
That 94% score doesn’t surprise me at all. Ugh, I wish I had more time to dedicate to gaming.
I randomly came across this game back when it came out on ps2 and I loved it. They set it up for a sequal and im still waiting 2 decades later.
Earthworm Jim
Atomic Robokid (Genesis)
Tempest (Atari 2600 version)
Ghosts and Goblins (NES)
The game where it’s a rich guy that sends a trained assassin out onto a island with nothing and hunts him for 24 hours, and if the assassin kills the rich guy he gets his freedom and like $20K.
Rock n Roll Racing (SNES)
Beyond All Reason/Planetary Annihilation
Ghosts and Goblins
Listen kids, this is how you spot them, this and their rubber skin. Dogs bark at them too.
Earthworm Jim
https://store.steampowered.com/app/901147/Earthworm_Jim/
Ghosts and Goblins (NES)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556690/Capcom_Arcade_StadiumGhosts_n_Goblins/ (arcade)
Not the same, but apparently close.
The NES & arcade versions are very similar in terms of level layout and enemy spawns. There are certainly differences, but I haven’t played the arcade version enough to tell you what those specific differences are.
Beyond All Reason
https://www.beyondallreason.info/
Planetary Annihilation
https://store.steampowered.com/app/386070/Planetary_Annihilation_TITANS/
I personally enjoyed Total Annihilation, but Planetary Annihilation and some of the later games, like the Spring-based remakes never quite caught me the same way.
TIL there’s an arcade version of Ghosts n Goblins
Thanks for the links!
The arcade was the original version. There’s also a really good modern port on the C64 with a banging soundtrack called “Ghosts n Goblins Arcade”
Next week, imma be all about this.
Rock n Roll Racing
That was notable for having a pretty good soundtrack for the SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngua3njzHBY&list=PLXtoniNoeLvpgFcFnhfzi2SxEAI4jyIZr
Still to this day I hum Black Sabbath when I drive fast or do any fancy weaving.
Blast Corps
Oh fuck yeah
Enderal.
I’ll edit this later when I can post from my comp (mobile now) with the full pitchas promised:Basically an indie dev crew broke skyrim down to its most basic assets, then rebuilt a completely new game using them. AND IT’S SO FUCKING GOOD. Completely new lore / game universe (has nothing at all to do with elder scrolls, tamriel, etc), new voice acting, terrain, music, you name it.
Steers away from common story tropes to the point that there isn’t really an antagonist in the traditional sense - but it uses concepts, emotions, philosophies, etc as the driving force for the main story line and some of the larger quest chains.
This game is an absolute passion project by the devs, which is something we don’t see often now-a-days.
Note: link above is to the version that uses Skyrim SE’s assets (the 2016 re-release). If you have the original version of skyrim, use this link instead. If you own a different version of Skyrim, there might be a compatible version of Enderal here: https://sureai.net/games/enderal/
Fair warning: the children NPC voice acting is even worse than the kids in Skyrim. The TAI (toggle AI) command can shut them up without breaking them.
Fair warning 2: they redid combat. The OP shit in Skyrim, like the sneaky archer build, will get your ass beat to a pulp in Enderal. Make a save when you get to the point where you can spend some talent points, experiment with a few styles, and go from there.
Fair warning 3: It’s built on Skyrim’s assets, which means it has all of Skyrim’s problems. Step on a basket full of cabbage just right; get launched into low orbit. Quest items clipping through the floor. Bounty that refuses to go away. Shit like that. Save frequently, and don’t be afraid to use the command console to do things like magic in a lost item or force a broken quest to progress to the next stage.
- Brave Fencer Musashi
- Limbo
- ReCore
- The Way
- Inside
- Unravel
- Cat Quest
- Death Squared
Limbo
https://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/LIMBO/
ReCore
https://store.steampowered.com/app/537450/ReCore_Definitive_Edition/
The Way
https://store.steampowered.com/app/311010/The_Way/
Inside
https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/INSIDE/
Unravel
Looks like it’s currently 75% off on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1225560/Unravel/
Cat Quest
Someone else mentioned this one; I linked to it there.
Death Squared
I have brave fencer on ps1! Still play it sometimes. Sadly missing the ff bonus disc
I wanted to hate it because I had just read Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa and was fascinated by Miyamoto Musashi and the game is only loosely connected to him but it sucked me in.
I ended up playing it for a few weeks straight until I beat it and I’ve never forgotten it.
Is ReCore really worth the play? It was on my list when it came out, but got very mixed reviews.
I enjoyed it but I’ve never finished it because it gets repetitive and starts to feel like a grind.
It fits my play style because I game in fits and starts so I’ve been playing it in chunks.
I liked it enough to go get it for PC after playing it on Xbox GamePass years ago.
The grind aspect is the biggest comment I remember reading. I’ll keep it as an option for one day.
“Whiplash!” Was an old racing sim that had crazy tracks. It had collision damage and in single player mode you could give your teammate commands.
It supported 8 players on a lan in multiplayer. All of this while running from DOS. Looking back it seemed a little ahead of its time. I’ve never encountered anyone in person that knew of this game.
“Whiplash!”
Apparently this was known as Fatal Racing outside North America.
Im surprised I missed this, I love this era of racing games. Gonna try to find a copy!
The Longest Journey. It’s one of the best adventure games ever made, and has one of the best stories in interactive storytelling.
Sacrifice. An old Interplay title where you are a sorcerer in service to a god. You summon armies of creatures and cast world-altering spells using the souls of creatures you’ve sacrificed to your god.
Nice, came here to mention Sacrifice! A remake would go so hard, but I don’t think it’ll ever happen.
TLJ is also solid.
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
Basically AoE2 with a Star Wars skin and a few new unit/building types. I must have put thousands of hours into this game in my lifetime and I still play it occasionally.
Yes! I so badly want this game to get the same remaster treatment that AoE II got, but as is the case with most licensed games, the IP will probably keep it from ever being updated again.
You know what is deservedly never talked about? Star Wars Force Commander. Another RTS but this time it sucked ass.
Had a killer soundtrack though. https://youtu.be/yCU_6IFc9t0
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/356500/STAR_WARS_Galactic_Battlegrounds_Saga/
Outlaws. An early Spaghetti Western themed FPS from LucasArts. After Dark Forces (Retconned by Rogue One) and before DF2:Jedi Knight (the one with the amazibad FMV cut scenes and the best expansion pack ever), it leveraged the 2.5d engine for all it was worth and did a hand-animated slightly Don-Bluth-esque aesthetic that worked perfectly.
Level design was good. Multiplayer was fun, even though if you tried to LAN with an unswitched hub (it was 1998!) player 3 would lag like motherfucker and be relegated to throwing dynamite and praying. Story was straight out of a Tropes-R-Us, but well executed and with good voice acting (including John de Lancie IIRC). The coup de grace was the soundtrack, Clint Bajakian seemed to inhabit Ennio Morricone’s soul, but with leitmotifs to make John Williams proud. It absolutely elevated the game.
Outlaws
https://store.steampowered.com/app/559620/Outlaws__A_Handful_of_Missions/
Looks like it’s currently 65% off on GOG:
dark forces got a community sourceport, and even a commercial one. outlaws on the other hand which is better in literally every way gets no love.
