Macmillan Cancer Support is a charity close to my heart. When my Granddad died of prostate cancer 25 years ago Macmillan were there to support my Nan every step of the way. With the rest of the family living at least 50 miles away, it cannot be quantified how invaluable this was to her, to us, and to my Granddad.
So, when my wife brought the Macmillan Game Heroes incentive to my mind a few days after I'd begun my furlough from work, I was always going to do it. I'll admit I procrastinated on the idea for a while, but when my brother-in-law suggested I do it for Gaming the Pandemic: Day 100, this turned out to be just the target I needed to get it sorted.
I set up my phone with an app to reduce flicker from my old CRTs and added a screen sharing app to get that picture to the PC. Twitch was linked to the 'Game Heroes' page so I got myself an account and set it up with frames and all that jazz, and I was ready to go... or so I thought.
The first 4 games had given me issues - with Just Cause 4 crashing my whole PC and a random issues with my Amiga that made California Games unplayable - it turns out that was just the start...
Game 5: Tony Hawk's Skateboarding (PS1)
Or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as you probably know it. I guess they changed the name because, in Europe, 'Skater' - before this game came along, at least - was a word associated with roller-skating or ice skating.
I know until this point 'Gaming the Pandemic' has been about clearing my backlog, but rest assured this is not the first time for me with this game - although it may have looked that way for the first few minutes had there been anyone watching.
The last time I played this I was clearing all the challenges on all the levels in a single run, needless to say that was not the case on this occasion. After a few bumbling efforts the muscle memory kicked in and I started to find a nice rhythm.
This game still plays like an absolute dream, and is definitely entirely worthy of it's 'Classic' status, I could have played it for hours but just as I was getting into it the battery on my phone (that I was using to capture) ran out.
Game 6: Jet Set Radio HD (PC)
Forced back onto the PC I nevertheless stuck with the theme and went with one of my favourite games of all time. Again, due to the length of time since I last played, and always having an eye on the Twitch Chat, it was a while before I got into the rhythm, but it came eventually - although I never quite hit the heights of the smooth lines and seamless transitions from twenty years ago, but it was still great to re-visit this masterpiece.
Game 7: Parappa the Rappa (PS1)
With my brother-in-law on the way over to play the next game, and the camera already set up and the battery recharged enough,I filled a few minutes with this rhythm-action superstar at the request of someone in the chat.
Unfortunately, I could not get the timing right to save my life - and after five or six failed attempts to beat the first level I was grateful when Bob arrived to put me out of my misery with some racing on the 360.
Game 8: Dirt 3 (Xbox 360)
We've been playing this game for, literally, years. We have a five race championship set up that I loose every time - but this is more down to Bob being a complete racing game nerd than anything else.
After completing that (I actually beat him in the first race but it was all downhill from there) we tried out the Gymkhana mode - something I'd not played since the game was new. It was much more fun than I remembered and I even won a rudimentary 3 round championship before Bob had to return to work with his tail between his legs.
Game 9: Rez HD (Xbox 360)
While the 360 was on and the camera set up I couldn't resist a game of Rez HD.
This is another of my all-time favourite games - I've played it endlessly and, in my prime, achieved the pink butterfly ending.
On this occasion I died at the level 2 boss. I genuinely can't remember the last time I started a game of Rez and didn't beat it. I was livid! And turned to a game I hadn't played before for solace.
Game 10: Grow Up (PC)
There were three games I spent a long time playing in the whole twenty four hours, and this was the first of them.
Grow Home was a bit of a revelation when it was first released. Coming, as it did, at a time when Ubisoft were at their most insatiable; turning out yearly entries of all their franchises no matter the impact on quality. But Grow Home, a tiny, low-poly game about an unwieldy little robot called Bud using the flora and fauna of a strange planet to reach 'M.O.M.' (His mothership, high above), bucked this trend. It was a joyful little game that brought a powerful sense of genuine exploration and discovery to bear on the player.
Grow Up is the sequel to that game and, as much as there's no denying that it's 'more of the same', that can't be a problem when a game is this amazing to play.
This time around there are more plants with more uses, Bud can even spawn any plant in his database anywhere on the plant to make use of it's properties; be that as a trampoline, a mini geyser, on any of the other actions, most of which build into the verticality of the game.
The game world is much bigger this time around and, to aid exploration, you quickly unlock a jet-pack and glider. There's a real danger this kind of mobility can break a game - robbing it of the effort and reward of exploration - but it's well implemented here and jumping from a thousand foot high star-plant and gliding around the world is blissful.
Helping in this regard is the incredible art style and beautiful world in which this all takes place. Looking down on this world as the result of a successful ascent is genuinely exhilarating, and the temptation to throw yourself into the air and fall/float/glide back to ground level is almost impossible to resist.
I mentioned in the previous post that I'd played a game that used text dialogue and, unlike Yooka Laylee, managed for it not to be an annoying interruption to proceedings.
Well, this was that game; in Grow Up the text is not only short and to the point, but often very funny. I felt none of the irritation I had with Yooka Laylee, and the support satellite, with whom these conversations invariably take place, feels like more of a real, likeable, character than anything or any one in Playtonics bore-fest.
Grow Up - A beautiful low-poly world to explore and likeable, funny, characters with which to do so. Completely charming.
Macmillan Cancer Support is a fantastic charity that does amazing work whatever else is happening in the world. Find out more about them and the 'Game Heroes' programme HERE.
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