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 a screen sharing app to get that picture to the PC. Twitch was linked to the 'Game Heroes' page so I set that up with frames and all that jazz and I was ready to go... or so I thought.
Game 1: Yooka Laylee (PC)
At 7am on Wednesday the 1st of July I sat down to play this, my first game.
I figured something bright and breezy with simple gameplay would be the ideal starter. I didn't plan to make every game I played something that was new to me, but this was, and unfortunately, I hated it.
How much of this was down to the early hour and my frame of mind I don't know. But I found the long-winded text dialogue utterly infuriating.
It's a lovely looking game and the controls seem tight and intuitive. The level design was really nice too and very evocative of the 90's era the game was harking back too - but it really felt like the game was doing everything possible to stop me getting really stuck in.
It's entirely possible that this only happens in the early-game as it sets up the mechanics and plot - but when the dialogue all has to be read, and there's so much of it, and it's really, really, unfunny, it just becomes a chore.
I played a game later in the day that does an infinitely better job with it's text based comms, I'll keep that under my hat for now but will be sure to reference back to this when it comes up.
I tolerated Yooka Laylee for about an hour before I couldn't take any more, so I switched to something I was more confident of liking.
Game 2: Just Cause 4 (PC)
I love the Just Cause series. I have a vague memory of reading a review of the first game where the writer bemoaned that the brilliant parachute mechanic wasn't in a better game. Avalanche did an amazing job of putting that right in the next two instalments, both of which I sank well over 100 hours into.
For me, these are the best open world games there are. The shear scale and level of distraction (and destruction) on offer is incomparable. I know people whine about the story and the driving mechanics but this is missing the point; if these things bother you then you're basically playing it wrong.
Sadly, I was only able to play part 4 for a very short time before it crashed my whole system. Less than two hours into a twenty four hour stream I had to shut down the whole PC and start again - I was not happy.
Up to that point it seemed like the good old JC fun had been retained, although the one helicopter I encountered appeared to be a lot more fragile than I was used to.
This one remains on the backlog for now but I'll turn all the settings down a bit and try again soon. At the time though, I used the reboot delay to set up my camera for the SNES.
Game 3: Axelay
Game of the month on r/retrogames (soon to be hosted at r/retrogameofthemonth), and an old favourite from back in the day, It was great to see this again.
I used to beat the game on a regular basis 20 years or more ago, but I started on 'hard mode' and I couldn't even make it through level 2. Switching to 'normal' was more successful, and I got past the level three boss; but if I'm going to beat the challenge set by the above subreddit of completing the game twice on 'hard' then I'm going to need a lot more practice.
It's still a beautiful game though, and I'd forgotten how fantastic the music is.
Axelay seems to have become a bit obscure today, overshadowed by hyper-expensive Saturn H-shmups and bigger franchises such as R-type, but it is every bit as good and as polished as anything else out there - and the mode-7 graphics used for the odd-numbered levels are still unique to this day.
Game 4: California Games
At the request of my mate Dave in the Twitch chat I switched to this old favourite, first on the Mega Drive, then on the Amiga, with each providing it's own issues.
The Mega Drive version of the game, it transpires, doesn't feature Frisbee 'Flying Disc', and as it was this that Dave had suggested, I switched to the next most convenient version of the game; that on the Amiga. I was a bit put out by the music on the Mega Drive too, Louie Louie (It's a sea shanty!) will forever be the California Games music to me, so to not have it was incredibly jarring!
I have swapped out the disk drive in my A600 for a floppy emulator, but I try to only use it for games I have physical copies of. This is the case with California Games but sadly I looks like I've downloaded a broken rom as the graphics were completely muddled and I couldn't even see the (pretty essential) power bar. I tried a different event but it was even worse. With California Games unplayable, I moved on...
Yooka Laylee - Utterly infuriating interuptions to read inane, unfunny text ruined any chance I had of finding any enjoyment.
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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