Scattered Thoughts August 2018: Solitaire,AI issues, demon luchadores & more

Scattered Thoughts is a ongoing monthly list that I put together based on what games I play in a month. Pretty much my quick take on them after finishing the game most of the time. Writing a review for every game I play would be cool but it just isn't going to happen.

Quite the diverse set of games this month. Between playing solitaire to fighting enemies as a magical luchador I didn’t stay in one type of game at all. Guess I must have wanted to mix things up a bit this month. The limitless amount of worlds in games can make them quite unique sometimes. At the same time you can see plenty of games that stick to a certain genre like the endless takes on war or generic fantasy fiction. Which doesn’t make them bad but it very much makes it harder to see the gems within the mess of games that come out every year. So I keep on searching for some awesome games that click with what I enjoy and you will see that below even if I point out some flaws. Maybe you’ll find something you want to play by looking at this list?

Pocket Card Jockey: Horse Racing and solitaire the ultimate combo pack.

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Observer: Dark and gritty is the goal of this game.

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Detective Pikachu: A total reversal from the last game this is all about whimsical fun.

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Adventure Time Pirates Of the Enchiridion: So many game breaking bugs on the high seas.

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Guacamelee 2: Once more into the fight but this time you can fight as a chicken.

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List items

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  Pocket Card Jockey

  I now know that I’m not that great at solitaire. This is a fun little game that requires some card skill and knowledge of how each horse can race better in certain situations. Having a win rate of about 50% throughout my entire time I’ve played this game is a bit of a bummer. Yet I very much enjoyed playing this for 10 hours and the loop is satisfying generally. Very much a good little game to play on the go and not something you need to play constantly.

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  Observer

  Adventuring through a grimy beat down cyber apartment complex is interesting. The grim cyber future may be bleak but it very much makes a kinda spooky video game. The horror this title goes for is entirely relies on gitchy effects that try to unnerve the player. It does a solid job in most situations. Which is good since it entirely relies on things not quite being what they seem. Plus the entire game is about wandering around talking or examining environments. When the dev decides to pull out a enemy is when they lost me for a bit since it’s hard to take the things they unveil seriously at all. They just feel like generic monster that you have to avoid by crouch walking everywhere like most horror games. At least they don’t overstay their welcome and the game has a somewhat predictable but grimly satisfying ending.

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  Detective Pikachu

  A feel good adventure game is what this game appears to be and that is exactly what it delivers. The narrative following the titular detective Pikachu along with his missing partners son Tim as the solve every case that comes their way to find out what happened to Tim’s Dad. This is about as by the books as a game could be since none of the moments have a failure state and it just comes down to getting the right testimony and clues to the continue the story. Most of all it was cool just to see Pokemon given jobs to do things you normally don’t see in the mainline series. Worth for that alone plus none of the cases stick around long enough to get old. So if your looking for a nice charming adventure then check this game out.

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  Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

  Half baked games published by Cartoon Network is something I’m seeing a bit to often over the years. At least the Switch version I played very much appeared to be not ready to release at all.5 crashes, 2 softlocks, falling into the floor to my death multiple times and at one point the game loaded me into a state where everything was invisible and I couldn’t land anywhere.Even without those issues this is a by the numbers turn based RPG that uses what would be the plot of one episode of the show and spreads it throughout 5 hours. Which spreads the story points a bit to far apart plus the ending is rather mediocre setup for a sequel. (Or just the end of the show which might explain why they had to release this in the state it is in.) This is 100% not worth playing even if your a fan of the show.

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  Guacamelee! 2

  I had a bit more higher hopes for Guacamelee 2 but this is 100% just more of what they did before. Drinkbox has done a much better job of adding new layers to a older game compared to what they do here. Which is pretty much just add in chicken combat that plays a lot like the main combat challenges. Nothing wrong with the combat at all since the way it is paced is very fun. Being able to combo enemies across the field never gets old. Use of all the tools in Juan’s repotoure makes the platforming sections fun too. Since the game just keeps scaling up the challenge in a way that isn’t very frustrating other than in some of the endgame optional challenge rooms.

  Yet I have done all of this before and it does seem less additive compared to what it was before. SInce you will be going through the same curve of the first game again with very minor additions. Even if my expectations were higher this is still a great game. If you enjoyed the first one and weren’t tired of the combat by then end then check out this sequel now.