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Mineko’s Night Market coming in 2018

17th July 2017 By Qazimod Leave a Comment

Mineko’s Night Market isn’t the kind of thing I usually discuss when it comes to games articles on Disposable Media. I look at screenshots of games like this and within moments I’m furrowing my brow in confusion, wondering how you build a super meter, or which command is used for just guards, or how many demons you can recruit. However, I did lose an embarrassing amount of time to the likes of Happy Street, Animal Crossing and other “let’s befriend the citizens and collect things and build our stalls” types of games, so this could be one to watch. The official website for Mineko’s Night Market promises crafting of items, shopping and collecting, minigames and more – all with your faithful pal Abe the Cat. Meanwhile, PC and Mac are the only platforms listed on the official website so far, but a mobile release isn’t hard to imagine.

Mineko’s Night Market – next year’s addiction?

Mineko’s Night Market will be released sometime in 2018 courtesy of Meowza Games and Humble Bundle. Outside of the gameplay and activities on offer, the art direction is gorgeous and everything’s presented in a breezy and inoffensive style that will appeal to all kinds of gamers. Of course, the real test for games like this comes from the variety of activities on offer and the longevity of the experience – too many cooldown timers or too few distractions could be a problem, but on the other hand nobody wants to be overwhelmed with activities otherwise the whole experience becomes a bit of a mess. It’s way too early to make serious speculation about any of this, of course – but I hope to follow news and updates on Mineko’s Night Market as it emerges. And even though it looks like the kind of experience that’s suited to handheld, I’m equally open to playing these kind of games on PC. Provided that my ageing desktop can handle Mineko’s Night Market, I’ll try and cover its release next year.

Induction review (PC/Mac/Linux)

7th February 2017 By Jim Miles 1 Comment

Bryan Gale‘s Induction is a discrete puzzle game that keeps its explanations to a drum tight minimum. Just deducing the rules can be challenging – especially later on – and that’s in addition to the actual puzzles of getting a little cube and its clones to the right places at the right times.

“Right times” is a key concept here, as the levels involve manipulating objects across multiple timelines. It is geometrical Bill and Ted, copying, pasting, looping, rewinding, and replacing the very fabric of time itself, as casually as editing a mixtape.

Art design is minimalist but colourful, and Tim Shiel‘s soundtrack an unobtrusive ambient match.

The game takes a sufficiently different approach to 2008’s Braid, but that time-travel title is worth bringing up in a related context. The Zero Punctuation review of Braid contained an absolute clanger where Ben Croshaw criticised what he perceived as an arbitrary doors/keys interaction which, to the discerning player, was in fact not arbitrary but 100% consistent with the ruleset. That very same confusion and corresponding moment of “whoosh” can all-too-easily happen with Induction, where rigorously retracing the steps in a trial-and-error solution is just too much effort and it feels far more natural to blindly press on to the following level. Doing so always leads to being instantly stumped on the next rung of complexity and having to reduce everything right back down to first principles.

If “having to reduce everything right back down to first principles” sounds like a purgatorial process then Induction is not the puzzle game for you; just as last year Stephen’s Sausage Roll was not the puzzle game for many, who rushed to buy it on the strength of testimonial hype and were promptly offended by epiphanies of their own ineptitude.

However, if you are someone who enjoyed Stephen’s Sausage Roll, English Country Tune, et al – and especially if you thought games like Braid, The Witness, Portal, and The Talos Principle were too easy – then Induction is a confident slam dunk. The feeling of sitting for 15 minutes carefully thinking through a solution, progressively bolting down all aspects of the level – and how each must be implemented – before executing what you have just built in your head to conclusively solve it, receiving that satisfying 3-note melodic chirp, and having the cube vanish back to the game’s overworld (in itself an explanationless system with its own rules and patterns)…well…that feeling is among the most unique and enjoyable emotions a videogame can give.

Induction is available now on Steam and The Humble Store for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Point Perfect Review

3rd October 2015 By Chris Walton Leave a Comment

You can image how Point Perfect might have been conceived.

Sat staring at a computer monitor with nothing to play, or waiting for something to happen. You gaze idly at the mouse cursor as you move it around the screen. Perhaps you click on a few things or drag big rectangles, and then inspiration hits – “What if this was a game?”

And so the unique feature of Point Perfect springs into life. The spaceship of most shooters is replaced with your mouse cursor. Rather than passing above objects, the pointer becomes a physical object inhabiting the same space as obstacles and enemies, leading to collisions with both.

This leaves you with a sole method of defence. The only way to repel enemies is by selecting them in groups. So as the ships and so on fly in, you’re tasked with surrounding them with ‘bounding boxes’ before they have the chance to do whatever it is they intend to your otherwise unarmed cursor.

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It’s a novel and fascinating concept that takes a while to get accustomed to. Even then, you’ll probably still suffer from momentary lapses in concentration and foolishly plough your ship into something that you were trying to go through instead of around. Having this cognitive dissonance as part of the central game mechanic is what makes Pitch Perfect so stressful as well as exciting.

Point Perfect is a game produced for a specific controller. You could say that it’s similar to the stylus control experimentation behind early Nintendo DS titles. It definitely works, as long as you have adequate mouse and motor skills. You might even find you improve your mouse handling on the route to point-y perfection.

It won’t be easy though.

Even when not taking my own stupidity into account, Point Perfect is very difficult. However, that difficulty doesn’t come from unfairness.

The gameplay is quite logical and consistent, without relying on cheap tricks. With procedurally-generated enemies following different flight paths, it means you can’t rely on the memorisation that guides you through most shoot’em ups. Only boss battles tend to stick to certain patterns. That unpredictability means you’re in a constant state of reaction, rather than being able to prepare for the next offensive. It does keep the game fresh, yet also maintains its challenge.

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If Point Perfect has a flaw, it’s due to the nature of the game and control method dictating a lack of variety common to many shooters. But the large roster of bosses and a couple of secret stages offer enough change to keep the game compelling, and there’s enough overall to keep you motivated to come back to what is essentially a score attack game. Still, you probably won’t see most of it. You’ll be dead, mocked by the game for your lack of skill!

The game is graphically presented in a pixellated retro style that is slightly more complex than true 8-bit graphics. And it’s complimented by ’80s chip-tune style music which unfortunately gets fairly repetitive. The tunes do evolve a little if you’re good enough to reach past the initial stage of each game, but not enough to avoid becoming overly familiar.

Stylistically, the Point Perfect mostly references internet trolls, on-line PC gaming and some classic ’80s retro games. Er, and some good old weirdness! It’s actually interesting that the game manages to share the spirit of 8-bit classics quite so well too, since the core concept of the game is quite new.

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Point Perfect also is a bit basic in terms of guidance and online features. No instructions are included, so you have to figure things out for yours. Some might say that the game is holding true to its ‘old game’ inspirations right there!

But it’s harder to justify the big omission of online high score tables, which would add competition and more of a replay value to the game. And there are no sensitivity options – which means everyone has the same experience but might frustrate some players. The Steam version does achievements and trading cards, which means when there’s a sale, the game could almost pay for itself!

Overall, Point Perfect is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of difficult challenges and unique gaming experiences – as long as you don’t mind a game hitting back with some on-screen mockery! It’s overall a stressful, frustrating and also compelling experiment that works rather well. For a certain type of player. Those who aren’t interested in a game style that leads to a gradual improvement of skill or beating high scores won’t find much of interest here.

Not entirely drawn in by this type of game, I’d rate it at 6 out of 10. A more experienced Shoot’Em Up fan or someone prepared to take on the difficulty challenge will probably get more mileage out of the unfortunately solo experience.

Given the history of ‘Point ‘n’ Click’ Adventure games, it certainly deserves some recognition for bringing a new ‘Point ‘n’ Drag ‘n’ Click’ experience to shooters.

Point Perfect is listed at £4.49 on Steam for Windows or Mac.

Mineko’s Night Market – next year’s addiction?

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