Month: July 2018

Of all of my video game collections, my 3DS collection took the worst hit during the flooding of Hurricane Harvey.  While all games survived, not all cases and artwork did.  All told, I am down to cartridge-only for all but one of my Zelda games, several Mario games and a few other gems.  I will rebuild, but that section between K-P took heavy casualties.

I spent yesterday taking inventory and storing them in their permanent location, which is about 4 feet off the ground (we took on 3 feet of water).  I also moved all of my collector’s items up to the top shelf in the room.  See the pictures below!

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Limited Run

I have an obsession with a company called Limited Run Games.  They take some of the most popular digital-only release games and make physical media for the Playstation 4, Playstation Vita and now the Switch.

They are still a fairly new company, but I love what they are doing and have collected all but 3 of their Vita-released games.  They are still releasing new ones, and I am sure to gobble them up on release day.

The significance of their name is that they keep each release to a very small number of cartridges.  In most of the releases, you won’t see more than 3,000 released world-wide.  It adds a sense of exclusivity, which makes it very attractive to collectors such as myself.  They also often have collector’s editions with many of the releases.  I will generally only do the collector’s set if it’s a game I really enjoy, such as Oddworld:  Munch’s Oddysee.  I had that game for the original XBox and enjoyed it a lot.

They are only up to about 60 games released for the Vita, which is the platform I primarily collect for.  I have about 20 of the PS4 releases as well.  Even though I don’t have a Switch, I have pre-ordered the first 10 releases there as well.  If what happened with the first releases for the other systems, these will be worth a lot more than they are now.

Some of my favorite releases so far have been Saturday Morning RPG, Octodad, Thomas was Alone, Broken Age (gotta love DoubleFine), Oceanhorn, Steworld Dig and Heist and several Bit.Trip games.

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Steam Stars – Pivross

Once in a while, I am going to share with you some of Steam’s hidden gems that are fairly cheap ($10 or less).  The first one that gets my nod is Pivross.

Pivross is actually a free game, but if you want to unlock 100 levels (which I did), you’ll need to pay a bit extra for it.  I felt it was worth it.  I am currently on level 80 and it is getting just hard enough to make it a challenge.  There are achievements and they are all related to the quantity of puzzles you finish and how many you perfect (no mistakes).

If you see my review for Picross 3D, this is pretty much the same game, just for PC and not the DS.  You start with a block of cubes.  You need to use deduction and logic to whittle away at the cube until you have the completed object in front of you, which might look like this:

Pivross Solution

It’s simple once you get the hang of it.  I have enjoyed it a lot and feel that I’ve gotten my $5 worth.  If you like logic/puzzle games, check it out!

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Oldies but Goodies – Acrophobia

Genre:  Word
Platform:  PC

Back in the early days of the internet, we didn’t have a lot of options for online gaming.  There were chat rooms with various solitaire games, online pool was popular for a while, and there were word games.  The games had to be small and efficiently programmed to allow the required communication over *gasp* dial-up modems.

One such game was Acrophobia.  This was a fun game in which you were presented with an anagram, such as ACRO.  Every player had a short amount of time to come up with what this anagram stood for.  For example, ACRO could be Anyone’s Capable Roman Orangutan (I didn’t say I was good at it).  All players would then anonymously vote on the one that they thought was best.  Players got points and eventually, someone won!

Here’s the voting round:

Acrophobia 2

Both my mom and I spent a lot of time playing this one.  It came out in 1995 and lasted for a few years.  I think it pops up every now and then online still to this day.  It was a fun game and certainly was an oldie but goodie!

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I have tried and tried to like anime.  It’s not something that has come easily to me.  I like English-language shows such as Samurai Jack or Voltron, but I have never been able to get into a Japanese-language anime.  Then I saw Sword Art Online and was smitten.

It’s only natural that I would enjoy this show – the premise is based in a MMORPG world.  It starts with some folks playing a new MMO via virtual reality.  I don’t want to give away any of the plot, but it quickly escalates and the stakes become very real and very high.  The first season really feels like two, but I watched the entire series in about two weekends.  Since it’s in Japanese with English sub-titles, I found that I had to pay very close attention, so it’s an intense binge, should you choose to do the same.

I wish I could say that this was a gateway anime for me, but, alas, that was not the case.  I have found a couple that I’ve liked since then such as Aggretsko and Neo Yokio, but I still struggle with the format.  However, SAO sucked me in.  I even bought all of the related video games (Playstation-only for now), a Funko pop of the main character and a plushie of another, Klein:

IMG_20180723_150645

I have tried to get into the second season, but it just isn’t happening.  However, if you have never liked anime but love video games as much as I do, give Sword Art Online a shot!

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Hi Folks!  I know I’ve been absent from this blog for some time now, but life has thrown me some serious curve balls.  It all started with the major flood damage we took from Hurricane Harvey and has kind of spiraled downward from there.  However, I am now back in a writing mood and you will see lots of good posts from me soon.  I have been spending a lot of time with my PS Vita and PS4 and have lots of goodies to share from those experiences.

Throughout it all, gaming remained a constant in my life.  I am thankful for that.

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Chey’s Top 25 – #17 – Gems of War

Genre:  Puzzle/Match-3/RPG
Platform:  All (mobile, PC, PS4, XBox)

For the first time in Super Fun Time Gaming Girl blog history, a game is being replaced in my top 25 list.  I know the list isn’t fully done yet, but in this instance, the former #17, Puzzle Quest, is being replaced with Gems of War.

Puzzle Quest deserves all of the props that I gave it in my original post.  I have since fallen in serious like with Gems of War, however.  The game takes the mechanics that made Puzzle Quest great and really ran with it.  It’s the natural evolution of the game and it is oh so sweet.

This is a match-3 game combined with a card-based troop system with several different modes.  It has an active online user base and is available on every platform, which makes it very accessible.  I play it on all platforms but mobile.  It’s fun to create my different play styles over the different platform.  For example, I play a bit of a trickster goblin party on my PS4, but a more serious dragon-based party on my XBone.

The developer is constantly making great updates to the game and it doesn’t appear that they have plans to stop.  Since I’ve been playing, they’ve added pets, weapon crafting and a completely re-done class system.  One of my favorite modes is treasure mode, where you combine pieces to form bigger pieces and get more loot.

Gems of War Treasure

As you play, you can also conquer kingdoms and add troops to your arsenal.  I am always adding, upgrading and maintaining new troops to my collection and tinkering with my lineups.  There is also a PVP mode, although you aren’t actually playing a live person.  You are playing a person’s team.  I would love to see a live PVP and I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up one day.  The map of kingdoms is quite large and is growing:

Gems of War map

Anyway, if you like match-3 games, this is the mother of them all.  It will keep you busy for hours on end and you will keep coming back for more!

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Hidden Gems – Perfect Angle (PS4)

Platform:  Playstation 4
Genre: Puzzle

It’s been a long time since I’ve added anything to this blog.  Life has been throwing curve balls at me since the flood and I’ve struggled to get back on my feet.  It took a game like Perfect Angle on the Playstation 4 (PS4) to get me excited enough to write again.

Perfect Angle is a zen puzzle game – unlimited hints, no timers and the mechanics are almost too simple.  The premise is this – you are given seemingly random shapes on the screen and you manipulate the play area around it until you find the shape hidden within.  Sometimes, it’s a shadow on a wall.  Other times, you have to remove a couple of pieces to find it.  I am now on level 53 and it’s never been so hard that I’ve wanted to rage quit.  As a puzzle game, I give it a solid A.

However, this is more than a puzzle game.  This game doesn’t want you to play it.  It wants you to experience its story.  You are taken on a mysterious journey with an aging man and you are helping to put his memories back together.  It really fits with the theme of the game itself and in the industry in which I work, which is senior living, it feels painfully relevant.  If this game ends up the way I think it will, this one may just bump something off of my top 25 game list.

If you own a PS4, play this game.  And play it through.  You will not regret it.

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