This is a Game Blog

Full Mouth

Rayman Origins • PlayStation Vita

Today’s trophy seemed inevitably elusive. At 11.58pm last night I was playing Rayman and had reached the end of my first race against a treasure chest with legs. I knew if I waited a couple of minutes, I could kind of cheat, take the treasure, score a trophy and use it for today’s contribution. But no, I got greedy and took the treasure and got the trophy before midnight, making it null and void.

When you are time-poor, you look for opportunities to squeeze in some gaming. You never know when you’ll have gone entertain family, cook dinner, change a nappy or, the worst, go to work. So for the next half hour, I tackled a bit more Rayman, failed miserably at Street Fighter X Tekken and, for a very small moment, contemplated Flying Hamster HD. As time stretched on, I arrived at the conclusion that no (more) trophies would be forthcoming in the middle of the night.

My next attempt to grab a trophy was a discreet 30 minute block of time to compete the raid on the FIB building in Grand Theft Auto V. A great mission going in ‘guns blazing,’ parachuting in, rappelling down the building and then attempting to escape a four star wanted level. Which I did, no problems. But as the time edged dangerously close to when I needed to leave for work, I thought I could shave a minute or two off the return trip to Franklin’s house with my crew by cutting across a field – which might have worked if there wasn’t a large body of water there for me to drive my car into. Everyone looked to be getting safely out of the car, and if they did I may have been able to partake in the game’s titular activity and still make it back. But no – one of the NPCs must have got stuck in the car or had a seizure or some other fatal incident as the ‘Mission Failed’ prompt splashed across the screen alerting me to the situation.

“That’s OK,” I thought. “Surely the game would have auto saved once I cleared the cops.”

It didn’t. The Mission Retry placed me back at the base of the FIB building with another four wanted stars to try and get rid of. By then it was far too late to make another attempt before work, and I shut down the PS3, wiping the whole marathon attempt.

So, slightly dejected – I was determined not to walk away empty handed today. I returned to Rayman with one goal in mind. Get any trophy possible. I scrolled through the trophy list and saw one for earning five ‘dragon teeth’, which was the treasure that those four-legged treasure chests carry (remember my 11.58pm trophy?). So, spending a meaningful couple of commuting hours racing against treasure chests allowed me to hear that sweet, sweet Silver Trophy ding later this morning – and what a relief!

These races are some of the best Rayman levels I’ve played, but they don’t really unlock until you’ve earned enough pink dots, and even then you quickly get satisfyingly frustrated with the no-save-points and ninja-like reflexes needed to succeed.

Tomorrow I am hoping for another attempt at my GTA trophy, but after a late night, an early start and a busy evening planned, I’m not making any promises…

… except that it won’t be a Flying Hamster HD trophy.

Escape King

New Little King’s Story • PlayStation Vita

Well, I was wrong about Rayman – it looks like you pretty much have to do the same number of levels again just to save another series of NPCs, but in all honesty, I’m probably going to do just that later today.

I also had hoped to finish attacking the FIB building in Grand Theft Auto V today (with a subsequent trophy), but Rockstar have done a pretty good job of distracting me with fun things to do in Los Santos.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d expand my gaming repertoire today with a title called New Little King’s Story. I am confused to whether this is a western game making fun of JRPGs (doubtful as this is a Konami title), or if it’s just a shit JRPG (supported by the fact that PSN has the trophy in Japanese!). I managed to hang in there for the tutorial, but I am doubtful that this title will hold any lasting appeal for me. I’ve grown out of reading and clicking through dialogue since gaming advanced beyond Police Quest (undoubtedly the best Sierra title ever), so why on earth there is a niche market for this genre I’ll never know.

Crusher!

Rayman Origins • PlayStation Vita

Another Rayman Origins trophy this morning, and a testament to how much gaming I would miss out on if I didn’t have a Vita!

This one was for crushing 50 enemies, which – depending on your play style – is actually fairly easy in Rayman, particularly in the later levels. I think I’m on the home straight with the ‘core’ Rayman story, as the level select screen has pretty much filled up, and I’m about to start the ‘Cloud’ levels up in the sky. It looks like there are a few quick-and-easy trophies to score once the game is finished (such as replaying a level, or playing a level with a different character), so I’ll try and polish off a few of these before I put Rayman down for good.

Scout

Rayman Origins • PlayStation Vita

Another Rayman trophy, this morning’s for finding 10 hidden cages scattered throughout the levels. This isn’t overly complicated, even when I miss what appears to be half of the hidden levels.

I’ve finished a couple of Rayman’s ‘Acts’ (for want of a better term) since starting, including a desert and a polar level, and there is a great palate going on that makes it a harmless little bit of fun. I’m enjoying Rayman.

Betilla’s Back!

Rayman Origins • PlayStation Vita

This one was an early morning trophy as I worked on Rayman Origins in the wee hours of the morning. I had never really had a go at the Rayman series, but I saw some demos of the new Rayman on the Wii U at PAX Australia, and figured that I better fill that long-voided title from my gaming repertoire. Shame, Ben. Shame.

This is an early achievement, which is awarded after the first basic level. I’m still not entirely sure what the story to Rayman Origins is, but it seems like the idea is to rescue these non-descript purple dots from witches and general nasties from a forest.

It’s a good little title, but I’m getting nowhere near the number of little yellow firefly-esque things which convert into purple dots at the end of a level. This might require a re-play, which is probably quite easy on a commute, but we’ll wait and see how Rayman stacks up against the flurry of new titles coming to your local gaming concern.

Score 250k Using Lasers

Tetris Blitz • iOS

This morning’s achievement comes from my go-to iOS game, a little mix of nostalgia and web gaming in Tetris Blitz. Coming after a string of ‘Blitz’ games – Bejeweled, Solitaire, Montezuma, etc. – Tetris is pretty much the original game littered with phone-friendly touch controls and a litany of prompts to encourage you with your hard-earned cash.

I don’t really care about micro-transactions, if people want to give themselves a paid boost then go for it. I like the ‘slow and steady’ approach myself, and it’s worked for me on Tetris Blitz so far, and it’ll probably keep working for me as well!

Welcome to Flying Hamster!

Flying Hamster HD • PlayStation Vita

Flying Hamster HD costs about $2, and is worth every cent of it … and not much more.

This trophy kicked in at the end of the first or second stage, and is pretty much a reward for turning the game on. You fly around the screen and spit at things, mixing it up occasionally with cherries, eggs, and beer. There are a few big bosses, and some loose story behind the whole exercise which seems to involve a female love interest being repeatedly kid(hamster?)napped. After entertaining this charade for 15 minutes, I had used up all my ‘continue’ tokens and got a fat red ‘Game Over’ on-screen. I managed to score myself a trophy for a local high score, which didn’t seem particularly onerous to beat, but it added to my ‘haul’ for this title. To be honest, it’s likely to be the only two trophies I’ll ever earn for Flying Hamster … and I’m OK with that.

Combo

Doodle God • PlayStation Vita

I started playing Doodle God this morning because my free PlayStation Plus download of Street Fighter hadn’t quite downloaded. This is an obvious smartphone port and a fairly simple trial-and-error game of matching different elements to create new elements, and so on and so forth.

This little trophy dinged early in the game, as it gives you a fairly good indication of what basic elements you need to combine at the start. It got increasingly more difficult as the game went on, but for under $3, this is a game that you play for a quick fix, and not the experience of a journey.

Charted! – Hard

Uncharted: Golden Abyss • PlayStation Vita

Today I completed the Uncharted franchise’s PlayStation Vita effort: Uncharted: Golden Abyss. It’s a fun little romp through Naughty Dog’s imagining of heritage-rich South America, and it maintains the same look, feel and gameplay that has made the series a favourite for PS3 owners.

Golden Abyss is a standout title for the Vita. In the few games that I’ve played on Sony’s handheld, I’ve been somewhat perplexed by the volume of second-rate PC indie game ports, versus dedicated development such as this. The latest addition to the Vita catalogue, Killzone: Mercenary, shows the level of ingenuity and quality that can be milked from Sony’s handheld masterpiece.

The Hard completion of Golden Abyss was a walk-in-the-park compared to the same difficulties on the PS3. Navigating tricky ledges is made idiot-proof thanks to the touchpad, with even the most complicated gun battles taking, at best, only 4-5 attempts. A few glitches, particularly when scrambling up and down rock faces required the occasional ‘Restart from Checkpoint’ solution, but the frequent auto-save limited the inconvenience.

This was a good game. I’ve started another dabble in a few select chapters on Very Easy to try and collect some missed secrets, photos and charcoal rubbings, but I have had some difficulty solving these puzzles and, while this is a solid gaming package, I will probably get sick of the game before I complete them. No matter how much I love adventuring with Nathan Drake, there’s only so many times you can push through a story only to have a cutscene close off an area behind you that may have had that treasure …