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Our Review of EarthNight by Cleaversoft

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EarthNight is a very fun game that doesn’t involve a huge story, and yet you can have a great time playing it. As far as any background is concerned, it would appear that the Earth is suffering from a serious dragon apocalypse, and the Earth is surrounded by these gigantic serpentine beings. Apparently, the only way to stop them is to jump on the giant lizards’ backs and run down the length of their long bodies until you can stab them in the head.

The player portrays Sydney or Stanley, and they are these two people who somehow have the fate of the world thrust on them. They live in this weird spaceship of a blimp and are summoned to fight the dragon menace, and fight they do!

I say that they run on the backs, and they run and don’t look back. Yeah, there is no way to look back or go back in this game, and the player has to advance to the end by jumping on enemies and acquiring treasure. After all, dragons always have treasure, don’t they?

It is very addictive gameplay as you have to dodge enemies that appear out of nowhere and get some great treasures and eventually give them a deathblow. From there, it is about descending down to the Earth on the backs of dragons. You will fall a few times, but you can trade in your treasures for some better weapons and talents that will help you kill more dragons.

I will give this games high marks, a 4 out of 5 stars. It was a game I only planned to play for a little while, but it was very fun to beat dragons in space. There is a lot to like about this game, so you should download it if anything that I have said before sounds great to you. Check it out at the Cleaversoft website.

Our Review of Lost Ember

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Lately, I have a thing about playing relaxing adventure games. There is something about being a character in an immersive world where the stakes are high but you can’t be killed if you aren’t paying attention for a second. This is the case for Lost Ember, which is an independent game from Mooneye that has an incredible premise and a very big world.

Like most games, there is a story involved, and honestly, I had a hard time following the story. The title refers to a soul that has not transcended into the afterlife, but is stuck on Earth in a form that is not what it once was. In the case of the main player, you play this wolf, and this wolf is on a quest to find memories of its past life.

These memories come the form of strange pink smoke, and when they are examined, a scene plays out. If this already isn’t unusual enough, the game not only takes place on some alien looking world that still has a lot of beauty. It also seems to take place in some time that looks to be Mayan, at least that seems to be the style that maybe they are going for.

Once you find these memories, they appear as these statues in that Mayan or maybe even African style. Seriously, I am not certain what kind of time period the creators were going for, but it completely succeeds at drawing the player in.

Oh, and it is really hard to describe the stuff in this game. I haven’t even mentioned that you in your wolf form is followed by this dancing light thing. It is revealed what it is, and I have played the game to its satisfactory conclusion.

Now, one of the great appeals of the game is that the wolf does not need to stay a wolf, but can change forms into another animals. The issue is that these animals have to be in close proximity, but you can use their abilities. For example, if you are a bird, you can fly. If you are a fish, you can swim underwater indefinitely. You can even become this digging beast that helps you to get to the other areas.

Yeah, if you haven’t guessed, this is one of those games where you need to keep moving forward. There are also those Easter Egg little prizes that you can obtain. There are these artifacts that are highly diverse, and there are there mushrooms as well. I had to admit that I didn’t really spend a lot of time finding these things, but many of them were not too far off the beaten path. I don’t think that I found half of them.

I’m going to have to rate this game highly, about four out of five stars. The lower rating comes from many times in the game where the scenery kind of takes over, and you are on a ride that you can’t control. The high rating comes from its story, albeit confusing, but is really about spiritual redemption in a wonderful world. You can find more information about the game on Mooneye website, and it is available for Steam, XBox One, PS4, and Switch a little later.

Our Review of The Eyes of Ara

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When it comes to point and click adventures, I personally prize them above their more advanced descendants. It is games like Myst and Riven where I poured a lot of hours doing nothing but just clicking on things to make sure I didn’t miss anything the last time. Once I heard about The Eyes of Ara, I just had to try it out.

What I found was something terrific, and very, very engaging. The basic premise of the game is pretty simple as you play some kind of repairman who is sent to a mysterious castle that is emitting a strange signal that is blocking all kinds of signals in the area. That sounds like some pretty underwhelming stakes, but honestly, it is a pretty great set-up for a grand place filled with puzzles.

If you have played other point and clicks, then you probably know the drill. It means that you go into rooms, find objects, use the objects to discover other rooms, rinse and repeat. Now, some of these games will allow you to only hold a few objects, if any at all.

One strange thing about The Eyes of Ara is that it is in sections. That is, you go through one area of the house, and then you figure out another area. You cannot take objects from one area of the house into another. This might be kind of a spoiler, but you will quickly find this out.

Like most games of this type, there are hidden objects in the game to find that are not necessary if you wish to progress in certain rooms of the castle. This might be a bit of a spoiler, the strangest thing is that eventually, you are required to find at least a few of these supposed hidden objects to complete the game. It’s kind of weird and somewhat refreshing. After all, I’m the type that likes to find all of those Easter Eggs hanging about in a game.

What makes The Eyes of Ara a winner of a game is its atmosphere. It is disturbing being in a castle on your own, but doesn’t rely on cheap jump-scares. The puzzles are also the perfect balance of being challenging and engaging at the same time. There is a backstory which is worth reading about, even though you probably don’t have to and some players just aren’t interested.

I’m going to give The Eyes of Ara five stars. I’ve been playing it for about two weeks and have enjoyed the hour or so each night. You can find out more about it here on the 100 Stones website.

Groundhog Day Sequel is happening with Like Father Like Son: Release date and interview with developer

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One of the things that I discovered at PAX West 2019 is a lot of awesome cosplayers, not to mention a VR game that is now available for PlayStation® VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive known as Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son. Once I heard that this game has been made, I had all kinds of questions:

Why a Sequel to Groundhog Day?

I figured that you have at least heard of Groundhog Day, a Bill Murray film that came out a quarter-century ago that is about a man who is repeating the same day over and over. It is a film that was incredibly influential, not only for Murray’s career, but believe it or not, “Time Loop” is an official genre on Netflix. If you don’t believe me, check out the show Russian Doll.

Honestly, it is one of my favorite films and I’ll try to not gush on it too much. I think that this video from a YouTuber says it all:

Now, Groundhog Day is one of those films that would be ruined if it had a sequel, like Inception. The story of its main character, Phil Connors, had pretty much been told, and we can assume that he and Rita (Andie MacDowell) lived happily ever after now that the time loop had ceased.

Well, as it turns out, Phil has a son, also named Phil (junior), and now he is repeating the same day over and over. Granted, it is not a movie or TV series, but a VR game.

So what happens in Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

Phil Connors Jr. is a vlogger who had lived underneath the shadow of his father, who has become a celebrity in the small town of Phuxatawney. After all, Phil Sr. lived for what could have been ten thousand years in the same day, and had got to know everyone. Suddenly, Phil Jr. discovers that he is living the same day over again like his Dad, but it is the day before Groundhog Day, February 1st.

What is the gameplay of Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

I have to admit that when I first tried out the demo at PAX West 2019, I was more than disappointed. What I was hoping for was an exploration of Punxsutawney, along with a chance to kind of do what Phil and every other hero does in Time Loop films.

Instead, I was doing this funky thing where I was destroying coffee beans, seriously. Granted, I had some fun doing it, but it was not what I was thinking with a game based on Groundhog Day. Oh, there was also a game where I was spray painting.

As it turns out, the game is pretty much what you think. That is, you can do things in the world, and then it steps up. I had a chance to talk to Ethan Stearns, EVP of Content at MWM Immersive, one of the companies that made the game (besides Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and Tequila Works).

Ethan told me that the original Groundhog Day is a story that uses a lot of gaming dynamics. That is, you do something, and if that doesn’t work, you need to do it again. Most games involve dying and respawning, which Phil learns to do in Groundhog Day to a nauseating degree. However, the gameplay won’t be the same thing over and over, but like Phil, the player will learn new skills in order to progress.

Any returning cast members to Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

I’m pretty certain that Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell didn’t reprise their roles, but their characters are there. Another character is Ned Ryerson, and isn’t voiced by Stephen Tobolowsky, from what I can tell.

However, the player will encounter a lot of Easter eggs from the original film, and explore the entire town of Punxsutawney. The game got a lot of support from Danny Rubin, and there was some help from Telltale Games.

Sony/Columbia was partnered with MWM, and the project uses very much gaming mentality to work. The narrative could work really well with gaming. Had writers from Telltale Games to help out.

Is there any explanation for the time loop in Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

This was one question that I wanted an answer for. This is a spoiler, but there is not really an explanation for the time loop in Groundhog Day. That is, there is no attempt to give a cause, supernatural or otherwise. I asked Ethan if the game will have some kind of detailed explanation of the cause, but he wouldn’t let me know this.

Well, it sounds like it is a really interesting game, and it is available globally on PlayStation® VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

Game Review: Brief Battles

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It’s not often that I really like fighting games like Super Smash Brothers, but I was very pleasantly surprised by Brief Battles. Just to let you know, the game is not titled that because the battles are brief (short in their time), but briefs (a term used for underwear) are very important in this game.

The game begins like a lot of combat/fighting games with a list of characters, and I don’t really remember much differences between any of them. The set up is you select your character, arena, and its the typical fighting game set-up.

Now, I can’t help but wonder if the fighting style which uses underwear (seriously and not seriously) is supposed to be a satire of fighting games. In the game, the fighters go for certain gift-boxes which reveal certain underwear of power. There is a toxic one that shoots toxic beams, a freezing one, one with fire…you get the idea.

The arenas are your typical stuff with platforms, but what makes things interesting is how you can jump on walls and climb underneath platforms. That is something different, and it is takes some getting used to. I would imagine that once you get used to it, you can use it to really out-wit your opponent.

You can fight your opponent in several ways, like there is one where you have grab more golden underwear than your opponent. Yes, I am not really laughing at this as a concept, but I like the idea of this.

In short, Brief Battles is funny and worth playing, and I’m going to give it four out of five stars. Check it out here if you are interested.