Destructoid Changelog - I Am Your Rugrat

I can’t believe it’s been a week. Big Big Run was going on in Splatoon 3 last weekend, and I actually found time to play a bunch. This weekend is the Grand Festival. Actually, that starts today. I’m sure this is a pointless lead for anyone who doesn’t play Splatoon 3, so let’s move on.

Oh, hey. I know I don’t usually jump into this sort of thing, but we actually have a cool reward for if you refer a friend to this newsletter. If you convince someone to sign up using the new and handy referral button (it will be below if I did this correctly), you will gain access to a turbo-rad monthly special edition newsletter. It will arrive on the last Monday of the month (September 30, this time). What could it be? You’ll have to indoctrinate someone to find out.

No, I’m just going to tell you. It would be deceptive if I asked you to do something without telling you exactly what the reward will be. This is why I can never go into advertising.

This month, it’s going to be an interview with the creator of Anthology of the Killer, TheCatamites. You might remember I reviewed Anthology of the Killer a few months back. Personally, I’m remember what an awful time that was for me. Not the game. Anthology of the Killer is great. I just need a moment to repress this trauma back into its hole.

While I do that, the interview is less a look behind the scenes and more a goofy conversation that will help you get to know TheCatamites. It’s entertaining, I promise. Also, it’s free, unless you have to pay someone to accept your referral. If you did that, then I’m sorry, you’ll have to accept bonus newsletters as payment.

Anyway, here’s the button. If it looks weird, that’s because I’m learning as I go.

In the cartridge slot this week

Little King’s Story

I was seriously considering that replay of Chulip I mentioned last week, but then I remembered something: I never finished Little King’s Story on Wii, another game done by Yoshiro Kimura and friends. It kind of shows. The whimsy is there, but the weird, dark, sometimes perverse subtext is missing. At least, it is so far. I’m about 8 hour into it, and new stuff keeps happening.

You play as this little boy who finds a crown and, in doing so, is declared ruler of a kingdom. The boy then commands an army to brutally conquer all his neighbors. It plays like Pikmin, and you even have to find treasure scattered about the world to fund your world domination. The difference is that all your followers have names, and also the controls are way worse.

You know those frustrating moments in Pikmin where some of the little guys would fall off the edge of the ramp, so you’d have to go back and guide them around it? That happens here, but you have less control over the tightness of your formation. I think I actually gave up the first time I tried playing Little King’s Story, because I found the controls so frustrating. I’m coping better this time, but there are still moments.

Okay, wait, I lied. There is some weird/dark/perverse subtext. Your villagers can die in combat. However, most of the time, they’ll inexplicably wash up on the shore of a nearby beach. This isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes, they’ll just die, and you’ll see their friends in town dressed in black and mourning their death and will describe the horror of finding the corpse. So, this is like someone played Pikmin and wondered how they could make players feel worse about the death of their followers.

One really weird thing about Little King’s Story is that it has a remake of sorts on the PlayStation Vita called New Little King’s Story. It feels like the goal of the remake was to suck as much whimsy out of the original as possible. It has more dialogue, a less cute art style, and I’m not sure what else on top of that because I haven’t played it. Weirdly, however, nobody who worked on the original is in the credits of the remake. Ew.

Elsewhere on Destructoid

You can now play the Mega Man X8 fan demake

My personal opinion is that the Mega Man X series is largely a downhill slide since its first game. I hit bottom with X6, X7 still wasn’t passable, but X8 managed to elevate the series back to tolerable status. Alysson da Paz wouldn’t agree, as they find X8 to be one of the best in the series. I won’t fight about it, but I do appreciate that they liked it enough to create a demake that takes it back to its SNES roots.

I played it, and it’s actually very capable. It feels like the SNES games, and you probably wouldn’t even guess that it was originally a PS2 game. There’s no Zero or Axyl, as they were outside of scope, but it’s worth playing if the X series would have benefitted from staying on the SNES in perpetuity.

Rock star blasts Rockstar Games over ‘extremely low’ offer to put song in GTA 6

This bit of news amused me. Apparently, Rockstar Games offered the members of the band Heaven 17 $7500 each for the inclusion of their song Temptation in Grand Theft Auto 6. This payment would not include royalties. This prompted Martyn Ware to respond by pointing out that GTAV netted the company $8.6 billion, along with the suggestion: “go fuck yourself.”

Gosh, I wish I was rich enough to be able to afford to have principles.

Accidentally insidious mobile darling Flappy Bird is officially returning next year

My latest strategy for feeling important is to rail against games designed with microprogression and other insidiously addictive mechanics. Flappy Bird is practically the poster game for that. It was to the point where its creator took it down because it weighed on their conscience that people were addicted to their suffering. I’m sorry, guy; that’s part of the human condition.

Well, Flappy Bird is back. Some reports are indicating that this is because the rights lapsed out of its creators hands, was poached up by a holding company, and now Flappy Bird Foundation has picked up the license and is rereleasing it complete with even more insidious design, such as lootboxes and, yep, microprogression. I’m not caustic or vitriolic enough to tell the developers to go fuck themselves, but I would if I was.

Mister Mosquito is coming back as part of September’s PlayStation Plus update

I won’t say I love Mister Mosquito, but I do have a significant fondness for the game. I think more people should play it, especially if you missed or have a fondness for the wacky experimentations of the early ‘00s. You know. You know. It’s not too late for the sequel to get localized. It’s never too late.

Reviews for review this week

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland

Listen, I don’t know what a Ragrat is, but I do know NES games. Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is technically an NES game. On modern consoles, you can play it with a modern art style and sound, but it’s just painted over a game developed for the NES hardware. I really enjoyed it, but I know what to expect from the console. So, I guess what I’m saying is that you should probably know whether you enjoy 8-bit games that aren’t Mega Man, Zelda, or Super Mario Bros 3 so you can set your expectations.

Star Trucker

I’ve been space trucking for most of my life now, ever since getting into Elite II: Frontier and Frontier: First Encounters as a teenager. Star Trucker is the logical endgame to this genre, where it is literally just space trucking. You drive a big rig in space, and the only real gameplay loop is to deliver freight. I’d say it’s like Euro Truck Simulator 2 in space, but upkeep of your rig is a key part of it. And that’s somewhat to its detriment.

I Am Your Beast

I was somewhat disappointed by the last couple Strange Scaffold games, but I understand they were experimental, and experiments don’t always find success. However, I Am Your Beast, with its terrific, fast, and intuitive combat, absolutely clicked with me. It’s an unreasonably fun, snacky title. The narrative seems to be a gelatinous amalgam of action film cliches, but it’s mostly just dressing for the stellar gameplay.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2

Oh, here’s one I didn’t write. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 got nine thumbs up from Jamie Moorecraft-Sharp. It looks like a great time, though my only familiarity with Warhammer 40K comes from Boltgun, which reminds me. I never did play the expansion.

Hollowbody

Oh, this is me again. I’ve had my eye on Hollowbody for a while now. I’m actually somewhat surprised that it’s finally out. It was done by a solo dev, and the credits actually read like one guy did everything (except the voice actor). Taking that into account, it’s an impressive effort. However, when it comes to the actual game itself, it holds up less well. It has its strengths, but… You know, I’m not sure I can sum this up adequately. It’s complicated, so I need the length of the review to cover it.